ffuries, I saw that too. Trying different languages in Google translator, "Doutsch" is the Arabic and Hindu spelling for German.
Aha, tried looking for the palm tree with flanking lions as a coat of arms, family shield, logo etc and came up blank thus far.
Same here, guess great minds think alike! Anyways, Dar es Salaam is in Tanzania, which was part of Deutsch OstAfrika. However, that colony existed from 1885 to 1918 - so not sure what the 1811 or other characters refer to. Hoping the OP posts some more info - as determining what purpose the artifact was/is used for may help.
Just for yuks,I tried too,no dice.
What I suspect, is you are looking at a container used to ship mercury.
"Doutsch" refers to Germany in a German dialect used in Luxembourg...
Historically, Luxembourg was an elemental mercury producer...
Now the 1811 and 76 pounds makes sense!
View attachment 1946872
What I suspect, is you are looking at a container used to ship mercury.
"Doutsch" refers to Germany in a German dialect used in Luxembourg...
Historically, Luxembourg was an elemental mercury producer...
Now the 1811 and 76 pounds makes sense!
View attachment 1946872
Maybe it is a mercury container, but this still doesn’t make complete sense.
The two rupees coin you’re showing was issued by the German East Africa Company (Deutsch-Ostafrikanische Gesellschaft) and has the arms they used, as I already showed in post #11. However it’s not the same emblem as on the presumed container.
Certainly they were involved in mining in East Africa (for which mercury might well have been a necessary commodity), but the company didn’t exist prior to 1890. Their inability to maintain control of the African territories for which they had been granted a charter led to full colonisation for German East Africa under direct control of the German Government from about 1891, but there was no concept of a colonial 'Deutsch Ostafrika' before 1885.
Could it have a Dutch connection? I know the Nederlands was in Africa as far back as the 1600s, and Deutsch and Dutch have been used interchangeably by people for years.
Flask is a British unit of mass or weight in the avoirdupois system, used to measure mercury. It is defined as 76 pounds (34 kg).