Polish Cavalry Saddle of 1925

 Salvete Omnes,

  finally we have arrived in 1925, when the Polish cavalry was to received the new Polish-designed military saddle. 

saddle with leather covering, seat and saddle skirts 

saddle tree

leather saddle and skirts & linen cinch

sweat-pad /horse blanket aka potnik 

shabraque

The 1925 saddle tree bars was made from one piece of wood each, and the pommel and cantle were made out of iron metal. In the 1927 design the saddle tree bars were made from a 5 layers of birch & poplar plywood.  The straining parchment leather attached to the pommel and cantle and secured to the seat with parchment thong webbing , the whole tree covered with leather seat and leather flaps or saddle skirts. Leather saddle bags, leather shabraq, sweat-pad/horse blanket and cinch composed the remainder of the whole saddle arrangement. Finally, the Polish sabre was attached by straps under the saddle skirts, laying on the leather shabraq, 

They made four versions of this saddle for smaller and larger horses, and for officers too. 

The saddle was subject to many a discussions in the cavalry and military periodicals of the era. And these discussions would lead to a new patented saddle for Polish military, so called 1936 saddle. 

 This saddle would serve the Polish cavalry in the  1939 September campaign and was used by the Polish partisans during the war. 

valete

Portrait of a boy and his rocking horse - Stanislaw Seweryn Potocki

 Salvete Omnes,

New Year has started - lets pray it will be not worse than the 2022 - fingers crossed - :)

ad rem,
Polish National Museum in Warsaw has among his collections this painting -

 

and a closeup of this splendid equestrian figure

According to the Museum information it was painted circa 1788, our boy (most likely this boy, whose father was Stanislaw Szczesny Potocki ) in the most splendid daily costume of the Sarmatians (Polish patriotic nobility of those times and also of the conservatives- so to speak) - zupan, kontusz sash, sabre, a kolpak, red riding boots.
His rocking horse - looking very much like an  Oriental- Eastern- stallion or even the Old  Polish one - has a splendid bridle made in the fashion of old Polish with Ottoman styles of the previous 200 years, give it or take - eg Beliotto's Stanislaw Poniatowski Wola Election 1776 - two versions:  Warsaw NM & Poznan NM.

This was the swan song of the Old Polish horse tack as the army regulation soon forbade the ornate bridles and shabraques/czaprak for the officer's horse 1789 and 1791. And then in 1795 Poland was partitioned by Prussia, Austria and Russian empire, and thus ceased to exist until 1806, when our state resurfaced as Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw etc, in the wake of Napoleonic armies crushing victories over the  Prussians.
ps
A presentation of children fashion as evidenced  in the National Museum collection - a file for download (in Polish)
Last year my friend Radoslaw Sikora authored  three articles about children games and plays in Old Poland - 1, 2, and 3.

Valete

Gepner i czapraki

Salve,
another Polish  day :)
dzisiaj znów w języku ojczystym :)
Obracając się wokoło spraw końskich i kawaleryjskich pozwolę sobie załączyć 'skany' z ciekawego choć całkiem starożytnego, bo sprzed 80 laty, artykułu mości pana Stanisława Gepnera, (biogram na Wikipedia jak i w linkach podanych) o czaprakach jazdy naszej od XVIII wieku do roku 1831, opublikowany w czasopiśmie 'Barwa i Broń', 1934, no7.

  Pan Stanisław, kawalerzysta imperialnej armii Rosyjii i rotmistrz Wojska Polskiego - 20 pułk ułanów, żołnierz Armii Krajowej, muzealnik i rysownik,  był ogromnie poważanym badaczem munduru i uzbrojenia Wojska Polskiego.
Mam szereg artykułów mości pana  i pewnie nieraz będę do niego powracał na łamach tego blogu.
Nota bene, po 50 latach od czasu zakończenia prac nad dziełem, dopiero w AD 2014 wyszedł był album ichmościów Stanisława Gepnera i  Antoniego Trzeszczykowskiego pt ''Żołnierz polski Ubiór,uzbrojenie i oporządzenie Okres 1832 -1939''  - rekomendowany tutaj. Niestety, niedostępny w sprzedaży, chyba że via antykwariaty i allegro etc..
ergo,  artykuł o czaprakach poniżej:

krótko o czaprakach w zbiorach na stronie MWP - tutaj.

pozdrawiam