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Lot Essay
This impressive saddle with engraved gilt mounts and embroidered velvet cover is of a style that was fashionable during the 17th and early 18th centuries. The shape is typical of the work of the best mid-17th century Istanbul masters - a narrow, upward-flying pommel giving way to the flowing lines of the seat and a low circular cantle with oval or near-oval flaps, or 'wings'.
Two Ottoman saddles of very similar form, although with mounts decorated with gold plates set with rubies, emeralds and pearls, were presented to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and his heir Tasrevich Alexei Alexeevich (1654-70) by the Greek merchants Avram Rodionov and Dimitrii Konstantinov (Treasures of the Moscow Kremlin. Arsenal of the Russian Tsars, exhibition catalogue, Leeds, 1998, no.7, pp.14-15). Gifted on 2 August 1656, these examples have a firm terminus ante quem. A number of published saddles exist in European collections, having been taken as war booty from the Ottomans after the siege of Vienna in 1683. Most of these - like ours - have gilt mounts elegantly engraved, sometimes to a greater extent than ours, with floral motifs or arabesques - and velvet wings with metal thread embroidery. For a number of published examples, see Ernst Petrasch et.al., Die Karlsruher Türkenbeute, Munich, 1991, nos.44-50, pp.118-27.
The example however that seems most closely related to ours is in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden. Like our saddle the Dresden example has mounts decorated with a simple design of cusped medallions, almost rococo in style, on lightly pounced ground. The Dresden saddle also shares the distinctive feature of the plaited borders that frame the mounts. That example was gifted by the Tatar envoy to King August III of Poland in 1750. It is said that the original saddle was Tatar, but that it was embellished with the Ottoman silver gilt mounts before it was gifted (Holger Schuckelt, Die Türckische Cammer, exhibition catalogue, Dresden, 2010, no.335, pp. 326 and 346). This supports the suggestion of a date of the first half of the 18th century for our saddle.
Two Ottoman saddles of very similar form, although with mounts decorated with gold plates set with rubies, emeralds and pearls, were presented to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and his heir Tasrevich Alexei Alexeevich (1654-70) by the Greek merchants Avram Rodionov and Dimitrii Konstantinov (Treasures of the Moscow Kremlin. Arsenal of the Russian Tsars, exhibition catalogue, Leeds, 1998, no.7, pp.14-15). Gifted on 2 August 1656, these examples have a firm terminus ante quem. A number of published saddles exist in European collections, having been taken as war booty from the Ottomans after the siege of Vienna in 1683. Most of these - like ours - have gilt mounts elegantly engraved, sometimes to a greater extent than ours, with floral motifs or arabesques - and velvet wings with metal thread embroidery. For a number of published examples, see Ernst Petrasch et.al., Die Karlsruher Türkenbeute, Munich, 1991, nos.44-50, pp.118-27.
The example however that seems most closely related to ours is in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden. Like our saddle the Dresden example has mounts decorated with a simple design of cusped medallions, almost rococo in style, on lightly pounced ground. The Dresden saddle also shares the distinctive feature of the plaited borders that frame the mounts. That example was gifted by the Tatar envoy to King August III of Poland in 1750. It is said that the original saddle was Tatar, but that it was embellished with the Ottoman silver gilt mounts before it was gifted (Holger Schuckelt, Die Türckische Cammer, exhibition catalogue, Dresden, 2010, no.335, pp. 326 and 346). This supports the suggestion of a date of the first half of the 18th century for our saddle.