Tuesday, August 9, 2016

Saddle from Wielun XV century

Salve,
yesterday I wrote about  visiting the Slav and Viking Festival in Wolin, Polish Republic. I met there Mieczyslaw Mietko Machowicz from Kalisz, Poland, who leatherwork master and historical leathercraft reconstructor and researcher.
In his tent, along with many different examples of his craft and various leather and hides for sale, he had several interesting examples of horsetack and several saddles.

The saddle that brought my utmost attention is this one, from Wieluń in Poland:

reconstructed XV century saddle

 Article about the exhibit in Wielun, including a short information about this saddle, and many photos from this exhibit.

historic excavated saddle from Wielun
a Polish saddle circa 1467, a detail of a painting from the Holy Trinity/Holy Cross chapels at the Wawel cathedral
The historic saddle reconstructed by Mietko was excavated during the archaeological excavation in Wielun, Poland. According to the maker, the saddle has been used while riding, on the Polish 'konik' and with plenty of comfort and safety.
Below find some photos of this historic reconstruction.

saddle tree, horizontal view

saddle, horizontal view

saddle -front arch(pommel), right side

saddle - front arch (pommel), left side

saddle and saddle tree, horizontal view

saddle, 'underside' with rear arch (cantle) visible- with bars covered, and birch bark layers shown, saddle skirts from underneath

saddle, 'underside' with rear arch (cantle) visible- a closeup

so as you can see the saddle appears to have been a riding saddle, not a lancer war saddle, but it could have been used by the crossbowmen and squires too.
and one of my most favorite saints always on horseback - St. Martin in a painting from late XV century Kingdom of Hungary

ps
when I opened the photos I realized that I had not taken any shots of the saddle tree alone, and no shots of front and rear arches (pommel and cantle).

2 comments:

  1. I like that a lot. It offers a bit more support than a modern flat saddle but is obviously much lighter than a U.S. western style saddle.

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  2. Hi, thanks for commenting. The Middle Ages horsemanship slowly but surely is coming out of the grayzone of history. Passionate reenactors are bringing these artefacts and their use back to us, so to speak.
    Perhaps more yet to come .. fingers crossed.
    thank you for your interests

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