Antique Hip Flask
A glass spirit flask, usually cut glass, fitted at the neck with a metal collar and screw cap and shaped to sit flat in a pocket for hunting, travelling or campaigning.
What Is A Hip Flask?
The body is glass in every example on Sellingantiques, and cut glass in three of the five titles. Faceted patterns ground into the surface, a metal collar at the neck, a screw cap to keep the spirit in. Nothing here is covered in leather or wicker, and nothing is pewter or horn.
The mount is where the flasks part company. Some carry silver plate, a base metal with a thin silver skin. One carries hallmarked silver gilt, read off as London 1891, which is the only firm year anywhere in the group. Between the two sits a flask with no metal named at all.
Two shapes of listing turn up beyond the single flask. One is a nineteenth-century campaign set, the flask supplied with its beakers, of the kind made up to travel with an officer. Another is a pair of hip or hunting flasks put at circa 1930, the latest date the archive reaches.
Dating is soft. Two of the five are written as circa 1930, one is called Victorian and one simply nineteenth century, so those last two read as period labels rather than years. Five dealers have listed one apiece, so every example means a different seller.
What Sets Them Apart
Mount metal does most of the work. A hallmarked silver or silver-gilt collar sits above a plated one, and a title that carries an assay office and year, as the London 1891 flask does, sits at the top of the sampled range. Where the metal goes unnamed, the listing leans on the glass instead.
Completeness counts for as much as metal. The campaign flask that still has its beakers stands above the flasks that travel alone, and the top of the range in this small group is a set rather than a single piece.
On the glass itself, engraved and cut runs above plain cut. Size pushes the same way: one dealer thought it worth putting "of large proportions" in the title, with no measurement attached, and that flask sits near the top. The whole spread, cheapest to highest-priced, is narrow.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for hip flask, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
The most expensive hip flask ever sold on Sellingantiques was an unusual Victorian engraved cut glass and silver plated hip spirit flask, in May 2020.
The Antique Hip Flask Glossary
- Cut glass
- Glass decorated by grinding facets or patterns into the surface. Named in three of the five titles, which makes it the defining body of the category as this archive shows it.
- Spirit flask
- The usual dealer term for the object, used interchangeably with hip flask across these listings.
- Silver plated
- A base-metal mount with a thin layer of silver over it. Stated outright on one flask.
- Silver gilt
- Silver with a gold surface. It is the mount on the hallmarked 1891 flask, the top of the range here.
- Campaign
- Furniture and fittings made to travel with an officer. In this category it means a flask supplied with beakers, straight-sided cups that nest over the body.
- London 1891
- An assay office and date letter read off a hallmark. The one precise year in the whole archive, and the earliest firmly dated piece.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are antique hip flasks always glass?
In this archive, yes. Every one of the five listings has a glass body, and three of the titles say cut glass.
No pewter, horn or gunmetal flask has come through, and none is covered in leather or wicker.
What does a silver gilt mount mean?
Silver with a gold surface over it. One flask here carries a silver-gilt mount, hallmarked London 1891.
The alternative in these listings is silver plate, a base metal with a thin silver layer. Where a title states plate rather than hallmarked silver, the flask sits lower in the range.
How old are the flasks that come up?
The dated field spreads thinly across five listings. One is Victorian, one is put simply at nineteenth century, one at 1890, and two at circa 1930.
The London 1891 assay reading is the only precise year in the group. Nothing predates the Victorian period, and nothing later than about 1930 has appeared.
So the Victorian and nineteenth-century labels read as period, not as datings.
What is a campaign spirit flask?
A flask made to travel, supplied with beakers rather than on its own. Campaign describes furniture and fittings that went with an officer on the move.
One of the five entries is a nineteenth-century campaign flask with its beakers, and it sits at the top of the sampled range.
Do hip flasks carry maker's names?
Not in this group. No glasshouse, silversmith or retailer is named in any of the five listings, whether stamped, labelled or attributed.
The one identifying mark anywhere in the archive is the London 1891 hallmark on the silver-gilt flask, giving an assay office and a year but no maker.
How often do they appear for sale?
Rarely. Fewer than a handful reach the market in a year on Sellingantiques, and at any moment only a couple are standing.
Five dealers have listed one apiece, so a buyer meets a different seller with every example rather than one specialist's stock. Two of those dealers reached for the word "unusual" in their titles.