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Antoni Feldon's Roman Canteen
November 2003

Antoni Feldon (Hetman Militaria) is a very well known armorer in Europe and USA because of his many works for Hollywood and some of the best roman reenacter groups.
As many other manufacturers, he has very high skills in metal modeling and forge.

Canteens are a very common findings from the roman military areas, and it is supposed that
canteen was a standard item in the equites gear. This replica reproduces a rare metal example with very rich ornaments and details.


The canteen by Antoni Feldon

The canteen is composed by a two metal shells perfectly assembled to the brass/bronze decorations. The two domed shelves in stainless steel (in order to guarantee quality of the liquid inside) appear too perfect to be hand forged. There are many soldering points between the two shells and the decoration, very well hided, but visible if investigated. Internally nothing is added to protect the steel from rust. 

The two steel shells are finished with the "mirror" effect. These kind of modern finishings are great for the modern eye, but are less reasonable in terms of philologic accuracy.

The decoration is made of hand made casted bronze and looks impressive also for the perfect assembly that gives a touch of solidity.
The ring to attach the leather strap is bronze made with soldering evidences.
The strap is well riveted, as the picture shows.
We can suppose that such elaborated canteen was not to used with simple water, but for some more valuable liquid.

The cork cap is well made, it fits perfectly the bottle neck and it is also correctly riveted compared with other originals found. The leather strap is made of very good leather and buckle.

Dr. Feldon was not able to provide enough documentation about the original that was also not found in our archive. Even if we cannot compare this flask we know that items similar to this were found in many places. An example of the same construction was found in Castleford1 (UK).
We have also tested if the canteen is able to hold liquid inside: the example in our hands is water-tight.

Other pictures, click here and here.

Conclusion
The canteen is absolutely great, even if the general too perfect assembly gives a sort of "industrial" feeling by touching it. The price is high (180 Euro), but the high quality of this item justify it. 

Measures
Diameter: 135 mm - thickness: 50 mm


Evaluation*

Historical accuracy (comparison with the original): N/A
Philologic evidences:
Robustness:
Test:
General Impression:
Price: 180 Euro
Overall Evaluation:


Hetman Militaria
Dr. Antoni Feldon
Oberföhringer Strasse 135 - 81925 München (Germany)
Tel. ++49-89-9570407 Fax ++49-89-9578569

- worst ... - best

1 - Cool, H.E.M. and Philo, C. 1998: Roman Castleford Excavations 1974-85. Volume I: The Small Finds , Yorkshire Archaeology 4, Wakefield, 203-22

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