Polish saddle and sword - XVII century from MET

Salvete Omnes,

the new AD 2025 has taken off quite nicely for the Americans with the new POTUS - America, I  do hope for thee & for me -:) .

ad rem, great American museum MET has two Old Polish items - sword and saddle - on digital display.
They are both unusual as they belong to the parade type, richly adorned and made with highest skill and mastery by the respective artisans. 

first, the saddle - H. 18 1/2 in. (47 cm); L. 22 1/4 in. (56.5 cm); W. 22 3/4 in. (57.8 cm); Wt. 11 lbs. (5 kg) - I wonder about the dating - AD 1664. It seem very late for this type of saddle. There is a seemingly similar saddle in Sweden, taken as trophy from Polish Commonwealth during the Deluge. 

the horn, very Mexican, has an image of a hunter? or soldier in a Western dress

there may be a coat of arms under the horn plate, inside the horn, of the city of Gdansk

a nice lancer - perhaps a Polish winged hussar with a lance 

                                                                        ***

the sabre /saber with scabbard ('pochwa' in Polish) and carrying belt ('Rapcie' in Polish)- associated with the Saxon court and perhaps with our king Augustus the Strong. Very splendid horseman's weapon. 

Valete 

 

Hanas Kreutzberger - horse types circa 1562 in Central Europe

 Salvete Omnes,

The Bavarian State llibrary has several copies of the XVI century German farrier's work, Hans Kreutzberger, on the bits of the period -  I do not read this old German script, but I am trying to decipher the script in the horse plates.
But there are almost 400 curb-bits described in this volume. and some splendid horse woodcuts and drawings showing horse conformation 

this is the title page from 1591 edition

..

and horses 

the Turkish horse  - from the 1562 drawing

and Hungarian cavalier, buckler and sabre,  with a Wallachian horse

sadly no Polish horse, do note how the bridles are fastened etc.

some spurs, a stirrup and a currycomb 

Enjoy

Valete

Gyula Andrassy equestrian monument in Budapest

 Salvete Omnes,

Halzbant at the throat of Andrassy horse

we have not seen equestrian monuments for a while.
If you ever visit Budapest there is a number of beautiful equestrian monuments in the Hungarian capital.

Old national Hungarian costume and Hungarian horse tack

One of them is the monumental equestrian composition to count Guyla Andrassy,  one of the most important Hungarian leaders of last 200 years.
 Count Andrassy, born in 1823,  served as a military officer  during the Hungarian Revolution 1848-49, but did not participate in the battle and capitulation of the  Vilagos (August 13, 1849) and the capitulation of the Hungarian army commanded by general Gorgey ( general Klapka  commanded the last serious Hungarian army elements that surrendered at the fortress of Komarom on October 7, 1849). Andrassy had been sent as an envoy to the Ottoman court at  Constantinople (today Istanbul). Thus he avoided being executed by the Hapsburgs, for he was sentenced in absentia to death and his portrait-effigy was hung in 1851.
Upon the amnesty to all participants of the Revolution and due to the political winds of change in the Hapsburg Empire he returned to Hungary and became a politician within the realm. Upon the creation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867, Andrassy became the Prime Minister of Hungary within the dual-state. His later political life, since 1871 when be became the foreign minister of the empire, was full of political upheavals and diplomatic 'warfare' eg -  he changed the course of the Austrian politics from friendly towards Russian Empire to openly courting the newly established German empire and hostility against Russian politics in the Balkans and Austro-Hungarian Slavic provinces (former &present day Poland, western present day Ukraine, and present day Slovakia and Czechia)  He died in 1893.

In 1904 Hungarian capital saw the unveiling in front of the Parliament  the equestrian monument to Andrassy by then famous sculptor Gorgey Zala. 

After 1945 and the occupation of Hungary by the Red Army, the Communists had the monument removed and melted. In 2016 Hungarian capital once again saw the monumental sculpture recasted and erected in the Parliament.  

a very large shabraq

perhaps a Shagya Arabian steed 

all images Wiki Commons 

Valete