A GERMAN HORSE MUZZLE

DATED 1565

Details

A GERMAN HORSE MUZZLE
Dated 1565
Of iron, formed of openwork panels fixed to a frame by eyehole-headed rivets, a few carrying rings, the panels pierced and engraved with foliated scrolls, some interlaced, enclosing a heraldic lion on each side panel, and two confronted mermaids and a central owl displayed on the upper transverse panel, at the centre of the front a double-headed eagle and above it a small rectangular panel pierced with the date, the basket at the back of the muzzle formed of three pivoting curved chevron-shaped bars (one replaced) linked by chains and each with filed ornament (minor damage and repairs, surface oxidation throughout)
9 in. (22.8 cm.) high

Provenance

Rothschild inv. no. AR2893.

Literature

1905 Theresianumgasse Inventory, p. 133, no. 639.
1934 Theresianumgasse Inventory, p. 98, no. 703.

Lot Essay

Comparable horse muzzles are in the Wallace Collection (inv. nos. A 449-454), two of which are dated 1564, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (inv. no. 14.25.1683), dated 1567. Another was formerly in the collection of the Baron Guy de Rothschild at the Chteau de Ferrires.

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