The style, materials, and decorative techniques of this pommel plate are like those on Tibetan saddles, but this is the only known pommel plate to feature human figures or a secular scene of any kind, in this case a tiger hunt. It is very similar to hunting scenes that occur frequently on early fourteenth-century metalwork from the Ilkhanate, a state founded by the Mongols in Persia, which suggests that this plate was made for a Mongol patron, either in Persia or in Tibet, based on Ilkhanid designs.