The German inscriptions are a romantic dialogue and translate in part, "I hope for dear summertime; wait––be willing [in favor of] me; smile, love, smile." The lady holds a falcon, symbol of Minne (courtly love), because it was believed to return to its master by affection and not by force. In the nineteenth century, this saddle was part of the collection of Tratzberg Castle in the Austrian Tyrol.
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Title:Parade Saddle
Date:1400–1450
Culture:German or Tyrolean
Medium:Bone, polychromy, wood, birch bark
Dimensions:H. 14 1/4 in. (36.3 cm); L. 18 1/2 in. (47 cm); W. 18 in. (45.7 cm)
Classification:Equestrian Equipment-Saddles
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1904
Accession Number:04.3.249
Inscription: Inscribed on the left side, on the main panel: OCH HOF --- DER LIB / EN ZVMER TZEIT (I hope - [for] the dear summer time); On the left side of the front panel: WART --- WOL MICH (wait --- be willing [in favor of] me); On the left side of the rear panel: LACH LIB LACH (smile, love, smile); On the right side of the main panel: FREI DICH --- IN DEM ARS / IS VINSTER (rejoice --- in the arse it is pitchdark); On the right side of the front panel: MIT / GANTZEM WILLEN (with [my] whole will); On the right side of the rear panel: WOL MICH / NV WART (be willing [to accept, or to be in favor of] me / now wait).
Franz III Graf Enzenberg, Schloss Tratzberg, near Jenbach, Tyrol, Austria (1852–after 1873); [Brüder Egger, Vienna, in 1894]; Charles Maurice Camille de Talleyrand-Périgord, Duc de Dino, Paris (by 1901–04; sold to MMA).
Vienna. Welt-Austellung. "Welt-Austellung," May 1–October 31, 1873, no. 233 This saddle descried as "Sattel mit Elfenbeinplatten belegt, darauf Figuren und Inscriften. 15 Jahrh. Grosse Seltenheit," lent by Franz Graf Enzenberg, in Innsbruck.
New York. The Cloisters Museum & Gardens. "The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle Ages," March 28–June 15, 1975.
Lind, Karl. "Die österreichische kunsthistorische Abteilung der Wiener-Weltausstellung." Mittheilungen der K.K. Central-Commission zur Erforschung und Erhaltung der Baudenkmale (1873), pp. 207–208, fig. 85.
Welt-Austellung. Officieller Kunst-Catalog. Vienna: Verlag der General-Direction, 1873. p. 30, no. 233.
von Schlosser, J., Wendelin Boeheim, and Countess de Valencia de Don Juan. "Elfenbeinsättel des ausgehenden Mittelaltars." Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses Band 15 pp. 260–294.
Cosson, Charles Alexander. Le Cabinet d'Armes de Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, Duc de Dino. Paris: E. Rouveyre, 1901. p. 48, no. E. 5, pls. 20-21.
Laking, Guy Francis, Sir, Charles Alexander Cosson, and Francis Henry Cripps-Day. A Record of European Armour and Arms Through Seven Centuries. Vol. III. London: G. Bell and Sons, 1920. p. 171, fig. 978.
Grancsay, Stephen V. "An Early Sculptured Saddle." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 32, no. 4 p. 92, n. 5.
Enzenberg, Sighard. Schloss Tratzberg: Ein Beitrag Zur Kulturgeschichte Tirols. Schlern-Schriften, Vol. 183. Innsbruck: Wagner, 1958. pp. 3–110.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle Ages. New York: Dutton, 1975. pp. 271, 275, no. 276, pl. 14.
Eisler, J. "Zu den Fragen der Beinsättel des Ungarischen Nationalmuseums. I." Folia Archaeologia 28, part 1 pp. 189–209.
Eisler, J. "Zu den Fragen der Beinsättel des Ungarischen Nationalmuseums II." Folia Archaeologica 30, part 2 pp. 205-44.
Grancsay, Stephen V., and Stuart W. Pyhrr. Arms & Armor: Essays by Stephen V. Grancsay from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 1920–1964. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1986. pp. 421–439; fig. 107.5.
Boccia, Lionello G., and Museo Civico Medievale di Bologna. L'Armeria del Museo Civico Medievale di Bologna. Busto Arsizio, Italy: Bramante Editrice, 1991. pp. 111–112, no. 214.
Radway, Robyn Dora. "In the Name of Saint George: Ivory Saddles from the Fifteenth Century." Master's thesis, Master's thesis, University of Central Florida, 2009. pp. 50–51, 89, no. 11, figs. 43–44.
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