Horse Muzzle
Not on view
This muzzle is composed of a basket made of several pierced iron panels riveted together, with two kidney-shaped openings at the front for the horse’s nostrils. It hung on the horse’s head by means of a leather headstall.
The central rosette on the front is adorned with a two-headed and two-tailed dragon in relief. Each of the dragon's heads holds a ring in its mouth. Two other dragon heads and necks are also curving around the top of the nostrils' openings. The side panels are decorated with heraldic lions and vegetal scrolls. The center of the crown (the upper part of the basket) displays the imperial two-headed eagle. Between the eagle and the dragon is a pierced cartouche bears the letters C.F.B.E.W., the initials of an unknown motto, probably in German.
Horse muzzles were used to preventing stallions from biting. Such pieces, however, seem to have above all been used as lavish equestrian ornaments, particularly in fashion in eastern Germany in the second half of the 16th and the early 17th century. This pierced decoration is typical of the work of the spur makers living in the southeast of Germany and Saxony at this period. Despite their name, spur makers not only made spurs, but also small equestrian hardware like bits, stirrups, muzzles, cavessons or curry-combs, sometimes adorned with the same intricate decoration.
