TURKEY, LATE 18TH OR 19TH CENTURY

Details

AN OTTOMAN SADDLE
TURKEY, LATE 18TH OR 19TH CENTURY
The wood and leather saddle with a padded seat and tall pommel and cantle, lined with red velvet decorated in metal-thread embroidered floral bouquet on the front of the pommel and back of cantle, the brass stirrups with pierced rosettes in base and lightly etched floral motifs on the exterior, red velvet and metal-thread embroidered saddle cloth with a cypress motif in each corner and border containing stars and crescent moons, a pair of saddle holsters and breastcollar harness decorated en suite with the saddle, the breastcollar with two gilt copper mounts on either end with cotton and metal thread tassels, with an associated red-velvet lined dagger sheath
Saddle 15 3/4in. (40cm.) long; saddle cloth 38 x 28 1/2in. (96.5 x 72 1/2in.); holster 13 1/4in. (33.6cm.) each; breastcollar 40 1/4in. (102.5cm.)

Provenance

By repute from the collection of the family of F. Bailey Vanderhoef, Jr. (1913-2008)

Special notice

This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Behnaz Atighi Moghaddam Head of Sale

batighi@christies.com +44 20 7389 2509

Lot Essay

It is rare for a set consisting of an Ottoman saddle and trappings, such as the present lot, to come to market. Not only do we have the red velvet lined saddle and embroidered red velvet saddle cover, but our set includes saddle holsters for pistols and the breastcollar for the horse, all of similar design to the saddle. The set also includes the Ottoman style stirrups with wide, curved treads which were suited to the heel-less boots worn by the Ottomans and sharp edges serving as a substitute to spurs.

The style of our saddle, with the rigidly vertical pommel and cantle, is one that seems to have gained popularity in the late 18^th and 19^th century. Two very similarly shaped saddle sets are in the Musée de l’Armée, Paris (inv. 5171 I, Cd 73 and inv. 5170 I, Cd, 72). Both of those were taken by the French Army following the Battle of the Pyramids in 1798. Each set includes a saddle of similar form to ours together with horse trappings, holsters and saddle cover of red velvet richly decorated with heavy metal-thread embroidery. The breastcollar strap of the two sets in Paris are particularly similar to that in our set and include the gilt-copper fittings at either end of the strap from which bunches of tassels hang. A further saddle with seat of similar form en suite with saddle holsters is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (acc. 36.25.579a-m).

The former Harvard scholar Francis Bailey Vanderhoef Junior (1913-2008) was an important figure in the early documentation of Himalayan and Tibetan art. Vanderhoef Jr and Wilver L. Cummings crossed the Himalayas in 1938 to document the religious art and monastery collections. Their photographs from the trip were some of the first of Tibet to be published in the American popular press, including in Time magazine in 1939. Vanderhoef’s collection of Tibetan and Himalayan art was donated to and now forms the core of the collection at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Another Ottoman saddle was sold in these Rooms, 23 April 2015, lot 182. A pair of pistols with 19th century velvet and metal-thread saddle holsters of similar form to ours was sold in Sotheby's, 7 October 2009, lot 181.

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