Pair of Rowel Spurs
Not on view
This pair of spurs, made in Paris between 1798 and 1809 according to its silver hallmarks, copies a popular contemporary English type. The neck and rowel are attached to a tab clipping into a rectangular opening with a spring, making it detachable. This type of spur is described in the entry Eperon in the Swiss Encyclopédie d'Yverdon published in 1772 by Fortuné Barthélemy de Félice. He calls it a 'spring spur' (éperon à ressort). There, it is explained that the drawback of such spurs is once the neck is separated from the heel plate, it is so small it is easy to loose.
These spurs are entirely made of silver, except for a screw in the heel, the rowel and the buckles' prongs, made of iron, silver being too soft and fragile to be used for these parts.
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