It seems presumptuous to consider the flask, the typical blown glass container with a full, round belly, lined with straw, as an object which should be given a Tuscan DOC (a brand denoting the purity of origin). It has been the a sign of festivity on dining tables for centuries. And yet this rustic glass container with its simple, essential form, is typical of Tuscany and even more so, of Florence. Until two or three years ago, the smooth, elegant form of a glass bottle was rarely seen on Tuscan tables. For red wine, of course, there was the fiasco of wine, the natural dwelling, the simple, cheerful container of the grape juice that accompanied daily meals.
To give a brief outline of this container, we have to refer to the artistic iconography, which in similar cases is of greater help than any other record. In the paintings of 14th century artists we can already see glass bottles similar to flasks.One of the first flasks, thickly lined with straw, is depicted around the middle of the Trecento by Tommaso da Modena in the fresco cycle painted on the pillars of the Church of San Nicolò in Treviso, relating the stories of St. Jerome and St. Agnes. In one part of the large painting, hung on a nail on the wall, we can see a flaskentirely covered with reeds, as was the custom in those times.The painter came from Emilia and the town was Veneto. Therefore, Tuscany, defeated in this remote iconography challenge, has the upper hand in the field of…literature. Indeed, in his Decameron, and more precisely in two of his novelle, (VIII,IX day, II, VI day) Boccaccio refers to the flask as the container for ‘vermillion wine’, and he also informs us about its varying dimensions. We know from Messer Boccaccio that in those times, they used a large flask, called the Quarto, which contained 5.7 liters of liquid, a middling one, the mezzo quarto, which contained about half the quantity, and a small one, called the Metadella, which contained just over 1 liter.
Moreover we know from documents, that the profession of the Fiascaio (flask maker) already existed at the beginning of the 14th century in the Val d’Elsa. This craftsman was specialized in the production of these containers.
From the 16th century the flask frequently appears in the paintings of the ancient masters, not only Tuscans, to show its widespread diffusion beyond the boundaries of Tuscany, even if it is more frequent in the paintings of Florentine artists(e.g. the splendid flasks painted in the still lifes of Empoli). But the history of the flask is strictly connected to the history of glass an the ‘culture of materials’, at which point the problem becomes more complicated. Indeed, as many sustain the glass blowers of the Val d’Elsa, already famous at the beginning of the second millennium for their glass furnaces, were those who probably exported this form of glass, together with more sophisticated glass and bottles, to other parts of the peninsula. Whatever the answer, there is no doubt that from a certain period onwards, the flask disappeared from the tradition of other Italian regions. However, in Tuscany it not only survived, but also consolidated our presence until our times.

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See also:

Giuseppe Verdi and Chianti Wine, Adjectives to Describe Chianti Wine, Pure Chianti Classico, Chianti Classico Wine in Short, A ‘Saint’ Wine of Tuscany – Vinsanto

or go back to An Introduction to Chianti Wine