Three Pommel Plates of a Saddle

This set of pommel plates represents a particular variation on a basic type that appears to have been fairly widespread, judging from the surviving numbers of comparative examples. This specific form is characterized by a central pommel plate consisting of a top piece in the shape of a flattened oval, beneath which there is a boxed or faceted base, with the facets merging into a chamfered recess that ends in a sharp, upward curve near the top of each sideplate. Additional examples of this particular type include two other pommel plates in the Metropolitan Museum (acc. nos. 14.25.1643, and 29.158.398).

In a closely related and apparently more common variant, the pommel plate has a raised notch embossed at the center of its top edge, in addition to the other features described above. Examples of this type include the saddles belonging to two elaborate armors for man and horse made in Nuremberg for Ottheinrich (1502–1559), Count Palatine of the Rhine (Wallace Collection, London, A29, saddle dated 1532, and Musée de l'Armée, Paris, G.40, the man's armor dated 1533); the saddle on a composite horse armor from the Radziwill armory in the Kienbusch Collection (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1977-167-21; and two more pommel plates (not part of a set) in the Metropolitan Museum (29.66, 29.158.383).

In another variant, the flattened oval pommel still has a faceted base, but the facets do not extend onto the sideplates. Examples of this type include the saddle of an armor garniture made about 1540 by Jörg Seusenhofer of Innsbruck for a member of the Trapp family, probably Count Jacob VI (Churburg Castle Armory, Shluderns, Italy, 100), two other saddles in Churburg (255, 256), and a saddle of about 1530–40 associated with a complete horse armor attributed to Konrad Seusenhofer of Innsbruch (Landeszeughaus Graz, 1401a).

Two very unusual decorative features, however, distinguish the set of pommel plates illustrated here. Foremost are the four palmettes, made up of sprays of teardrop-shaped lobes embossed in high relief. The most important example of embossed palmettes being used in this way occurs on the Jörg Seusenhofer armor garniture mentioned above, in which prominently embossed palmettes appear on the man's armor, the horse's armor, and the saddle steels. The second feature, more subtle but nevertheless distinctive, is the double border found on the sideplates. This consists of a large, roped outer edge, next to which are a plain sunken band, a narrower raised roped ridge, and then another plain sunken band. This unique combination of the raised palmettes and the double border must have been used on the matching but no longer extant cantle plates. which would have completed the set of saddle steels. It is also possible that, as in the Churburg garniture, the saddle steels originally were part of a complete armor for man and horse decorated with this combination of palmettes and double borders. However, no further pieces of such an armor have been identified.