Braunschweig (Brunswick), Kunstmuseum des Landes Niedersachsen, Herzog Anton-Ulrich Museum
Right side: crouching hybrid (dragon); standing lady holding a stem of flowers; intertwined monogram 'm' and 'v' (could also be an 'n' or and 'h'); hands holding scrolls with the letter 'm' repeated; lady or youth holding a scroll with inscription 'm'; chequered pattern.
Left side: crouching hybrid (dragon); standing lady holding a scroll in the shape of a 'v'; hand holding a scroll; letter 'm' in roundels with a sun motif; intertwined monogram 'm' and 'v' (could also be an 'n' or and 'h'); flowers; lady or youth holding a scroll with inscription 'm'; chequered pattern.
Engraved inscriptions in Gothic script and South German dialect: 'trev yst selth in der weld'
Museum's opinion 2012: Southeast Germany, 1st half of the 15th century.
Attribution
Unknown
Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy: red, blue.
Comments
This is one of the 21 saddles in the form of the so-called 'Bocksattel', made of the same materials with the birchbark covering the underside.
Provenance
Kunstkammer of Duke Ferdinand Albrecht I (b. 1636, d. 1687), documented in 1683; Ducal collections, this piece is mentioned in Inventory H 32 (finished ca. 1798), p. 170, no. 75: 'Ein alter hölzerner Sattel mit Elfenbein überlegt, wroauf Zierathen und Figuren in gotischen Geschmak geschnitzet sind'; looted by Napoleon, restituted in 1814.
Bibliography
Unserer Väter Werke, exhibition catalogue, Munich, Kunstgewerbeverein, 1876, pl. 69.
H. Riegel, Die Sammlung mittelalterlicher und verwandter Gegenstände (Braunschweig, 1879), no. 111.
J. von Schlosser, 'Elfenbeinsättel des ausgehenden Mittelalters', in Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorisches Sammlungen des allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses 15 (1894), pp. 260-294, no. 8 (pp. 265- 267). Fully accessible online as part of the Heidelberger historische Bestände:
R. Brydall, 'Notice of Armour and Arms at Eglinton Castle, Three Scottish Swords, etc.', in Transactions of the Glasgow Archeological Society 4 (1903), pp. 38-48 (p. 41).
C. Scherer, Die Braunschweiger Elfenbeinsammlung (Leipzig, 1931), no. 14.
K. Watts, 'Une selle médiévale d'Europe Centrale au Royal Armouries', in Armes et cultures de guerre en Europe centrale (XVe siècle - XIXe siècle), Les Cahiers d'études et de recherches du musée de l'Armée 6 (2005-2006), pp. 49-66 (p. 59, n. 12).
M. Verő, 'Bemerkungen zu den beinsätteln aus der Sigismundzeit', in Sigismundus rex et imperator : Kunst und Kultur zur Zeit Sigismunds von Luxemburg 1387-1437, exhibition catalogue, Budapest and Luxemburg, 2006, pp. 270-278 (fig. 8 and p. 277, no. 6) and no. 4.70 in the catalogue.
Schlangen und Drachen. Kunst und Natur, exhibition catalogue, Darmstadt, 2007, no. 43 (J. Luckhardt).
Epochal. Meisterwerke des Herzog Anton Ulrich- Museums von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, ed. by J. Luckhardt et al., exhibition catalogue, Petersberg, 2009, no. 14 (R. Marth).
http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/jbksak1894/0318 [accessed 24/07/2013].
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