SHOWCASE 52. CEREMONIAL HORSE HARNESS OF RUSSIAN WORK OF THE 16TH - 18TH CENTURIES

The displayed exhibits brightly present the idea of variety, magnificence and artistic value of ceremonial horse harness produced in the Stable’s Office’s and other Kremlin’s workshops—Gold, Silver, Tsarina’s and Armoury Chambers. The collection is not only characterized by the gorgeousness and diversity of horse harness attributes, but by its rare artistic value as well.

Saddles of different design are displayed in the showcase. There are saddles in precious frames with an inclined front arch, as well as arched saddles (archak) with a cushion fastened to the seat. The saddle that supposedly belonged to Tsar Ivan the Terrible is the earliest in the collection in terms of the time of its production. It often took several most skilled craftsmen to work on a single piece. The saddle in a filigree enamel frame is a very good example of such collective work. It was produced by masters L. Mamrin, S. Fedotov and L. Afanasiev in 1682.

Horse cloths made of precious and rare fabric are adorned with applications, embroidery, and gold and silver bobbin lace.

Various horse decorations, such as horse forehead decorations (reshma), neck tassels, silver reins chains and jingling chains, and others are displayed both separately and on a horse mannequin.

There is a full set of royal horse harness of the 17th century on display. You can see a gold bridle decorated with precious stones, a horsecloth (chaldar) embroidered with pearls, covering the horse’s sides and chest, a neck tassel threaded with sparkling pearls, a saddle in a gold frame with a seat, adorned with emeralds, diamonds, rubies and sapphires.