698 - Chamfron, Horse Head Armour of Metal with Ornamental Engraving, After a Historical Model

Chamfron, Horse Head Armour of Metal with Ornamental Engraving, After a Historical Model Metal. Single-piece, elongated forehead plate tapering towards the muzzle, with laterally projecting, straight-edged flanges. Above the brow area a raised triangle, below it a cross-shaped raised bar whose transverse member is formed as a framed panel with an engraved leafy scroll. The surface engraved with rosettes, lozenge medallions and scrollwork in bands, along the edges and on the flanges rows of rivet holes. On the inside rings and fittings for the attachment of straps. Made after a historical model. Good condition commensurate with age, traces of corrosion, the inside darkly tarnished. Overall 50.5x20x6 cm (HxWxD) The chamfron is the forehead piece of horse armour and the most frequently surviving part of it. In the Indo-Persian region horse armour remained in use into the 19th c., while in Europe it disappeared with the end of the tournament; from the Historicism period onwards copies were made for collections and for furnishing armouries. The rivet holes along the edge show that the plate was originally joined to further elements or to a system of straps.