Ornamental Boss

The domed center of this ornamental boss is adorned with a smiling satyr’s mask in relief. On each side, an extension called ‘ear’, made of a pierced palmette flanked by small masks, would have allowed the piece to be sewn onto maybe a horse's harness or a carousel costume. These ears are made from elements of the traditional palmette rim found on this type of boss, usually used for decorating horse bits, like 42.50.198 and 42.50.199.

This object belongs to a large group of bosses using a series of rims and centers combined in different ways. The exact center of production of these bosses is still unclear. If the motifs used are Italian, the scale of the production and the process of combining a series of rims and center recalls contemporary German practices. Some of them, however, are identical or very similar to bosses seen in several early 17th-century Netherlandish paintings, a likely origin for the manufacture of these objects.