Attribution
Unknown

Polychromy - Gilding
Traces of polychromy.

Reverse
Carved on all sides.

Comments
A 19th-century copy of this saddle exists in the Abegg-Stiftung in Riggisberg (Inv. 5.56.76).

Provenance
Probably made for a king of the Romans, most likely Wenceslas IV (one-headed eagle, symbol of the Germanic-Roman Kingdom; the initials v and e, according to von Schlosser in 1894, could stand for Wenceslas and Euphemia-Sophie, the b could refer to the Bavarian lands Euphemia-Sophie offered to Wenceslas IV when they married in 1389; see New York and Prague 2005-2006). Collection of Prince Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, Milan (by 1872, until 1928). Julius Böhler Kunsthandlung, Munich (in 1928); Duveen Brothers, Paris, London, and New York (in 1928); collection of Clarence H. Mackay (b. 1872, d. 1938), Roslyn, New York (1928-1938); estate of Clarence H. Mackay (1938-1940; bought through Jacques Seligmann, New York, thanks to the Harris Brisbane Dick Fund in 1940.

Bibliography
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Catalogo delle Opere d'Arte Antica Esposte nel Palazzo di Brera (Milan, 1872), p. 34, no. 241.
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E. Molinier, 'Notes sur quelques selles de fabrication italienne', in L'Art, XXXIV (1883), p.31.
'Une selle en ivoire sculpté', in L'art ornemental, no. 163, IV (13 March 1886), p. 21.
J. von Schlosser, 'Elfenbeinsättel des ausgehenden Mittelalters', in Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses, 15 (1894), pp. 260-294, no. 16, fig. 9. Fully accessible online as part of the Heidelberger historische Bestände: http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/jbksak1894/0318 [accessed 24/07/2013].
J. von Schlosser, 'Die Werkstatt der Embriachi in Venedig', in Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen des Allerhöchsten Kaiserhauses 20 (1899).
G. Nagy, Hadtörténeti ereklyék a Magyar Nemzeti Múzeumban. Hadtörténelmi Közlemények 11 (1910), p. 229.
S. V. Grancsay, 'An Early Sculptured Saddle', in Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 32 (1937), p. 94.
S. V. Grancsay, 'A mediaeval sculptured saddle', in Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 36 (1941), pp. 73-76.
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M. Verő, 'Bemerkungen zu den beinsätteln aus der Sigismundzeit', in Sigismundus rex et imperator : Kunst und Kultur zur Zeit Sigismunds von Luxemburg 1387-1437, exhibition catalogue, Budapest and Luxemburg, 2006, pp. 270-278 (p. 278, no. 19) and no. 4.66 in the catalogue.
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