Sunday, January 17, 2010

Question from Thamina - Tudor horse tack

I am setting up a dollhouse Tudor Inn, what kind of tack,(saddle, bridle, etc.), would the horses wear? A merchant and minor noble would be what i am looking for.

9 comments:

Kathy said...

I don't know enough about horses to give you names of items, but look at pictures from the time. The painting of Henry VIII arriving at The Field of the Cloth of Gold has a lot of horses and riders in it. (Lara, do you have a copy of that painting around?)

Ignore Henry who looks like his reins are made of cloth of gold and concentrate on the others. They all look like they have pretty basic, leather tack. Hope this helps.

Lara said...

I posted a version here: http://tudorhistory.org/blogpics/fieldcloth.jpg

It's kind of big for a jpg, but I wanted to you to be able to magnify it to see some of the details.

Unknown said...

It looks like the saddles have a high, square pommel and a curved cantle, with a breastplate and crupper. The reins are rather wide, and the bits look like they are curb or spade bits. The only horse that has a noseband on his bridle seems to be the one Henry is on, so I'd suggest discluding that.



Here is a good picture of a Francis I on a horse. It gives a pretty good idea on what the tack looks like, although you'd want to make it less ornate.

http://www.lib-art.com/imgpainting/2/8/8482-portrait-of-francis-i-king-of-fran-fran-ois-clouet.jpg

Just an intersting point that mght be of some help, the person riding to the left side of Henry, in the painting of The Field of the Cloth of Gold, looks like he is on a mule.

Kathy said...

Nicole, that is Cardinal Wolsey to the left of Henry in the FOCG picture. And he is riding a mule. It was traditional for cardinals to do so.

Unknown said...

Hmm, I never knew that before. Well, guess you learn something new everyday!

Kathy said...

Oh, and that is Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk on the white horse directly behind Henry. I haven't been able to pick out anybody else in particular, but I haven't spent a lot of time at it...

Mindy said...

I was looking at the picture, and by the octagonal fountain,, which looks like it is pouring wine,, there are all sorts of interesting little dramas going on. A man is beating on another man, one man looks passed out on the steps of the fountain, and another man is leaning his head against the corner of the castle for support I am assuming.
I find it strange that such things would be put in a painting that Henry wanted to be remembered as such a glorious time, even tho such events I am sure did happen. I know that their veiws on drunkeness were quite different, which raises a question with me,, are there any records of Henry being "rip roaring" drunk?

Unknown said...

Hey, I came acrossed this link just recently. Although it has to do with Florence, it still shows tack that was in existence at the time.

http://www.florentine-persona.com/horses.html

Thamina said...

Hey, thanks. I checked all the sites and tudorhistory.org had 1-3 pages of pictures of the various Tudor monarchs. I even found one of a riderless horse that showed the saddle clearly. I printed them all of course. Thanks again.