Saddle, mid 19th century (wood & gesso)

Modern reproduction or fake saddle, made, probably in the mid- nineteenth century, in the style of the authentic late medieval saddles, Wallace Collection A407-8. Constructed of wood, covered with gesso intended to stimulate applied decorative plates of engraved ivory or antler, and decorated in low relief with chivalric and Biblical scenes. This saddle belongs to a group of forgeries based on a particular original of this group of engraved antler veneered saddles, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Other examples were in the Pitt-Rivers Collection and the Marchese B. sale, Genoa, 1888, lot 35. One, carved in pear wood, was in the market about 1930, and another carved wooden one is in the Musée de l' Armée (G 546).