Pair of Rowel Spurs

Each of these impressive spurs is adorned on the heel band with delicate pierced decoration featuring lions walking among vegetal scrolls. Small birds and a swan inhabit its long curved neck, which holds a large rowel.

While the pierced decoration was influenced by the importation, via Spain, of horse equipment made in Southern Germany in the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as by Chinese textiles, 18th-century Mexican spurs like these examples, in addition to bits and stirrups, often feature native designs and animals, such as birds and monkeys.

Only a few very skilled spur makers, mostly working in Mexico City, were able to create such metalwork. Some parts, like the neck, are made out of a single iron sheet, sliced and curled to create the iron scrolls and their small birds. The pieces were usually heated several times during their manufacture, giving the metal a shiny appearance meant to imitate silver. Impressive, but highly impractical, these spurs would have been used during ceremonies and festivals as a mark of status, speaking to the importance of horses in traditional Mexican society.