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A Cased Pair Of Scottish 50-Bore Percussion Duelling Or Target Pistols By Alex.r Martin, Glasgow, Mid-19th Century
The medals and associate ephemera and uniforms of Arthur Watts, 6th Inniskilling Dragoons
A Pair Of Highland All-Metal Percussion Belt Pistols Signed Paton & Walsh Perth, Mid 19th century
A Silver-Mounted Left-Hand Dagger, probably German, Italian or English Late 16th Century Or Later
FOUR REPRODUCTION CARVED POWDER HORNS/FLASKS.late 20th century.
THREE CARVED COCONUT ITEMS.18th/19th century.
A COLLECTION OF ANTIQUE AND REPRODUCTION POWDER FLASKS AND RELATED SPORTING ITEMS.
THREE VICTORIAN ARMS AND ARMOUR DECORATIVE ITEMS.
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Lot 170

A Rare Mexican Rowel Spur
17th/18th Century

Antique Arms and Armour
20 April 2011, 11:00 BST
London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £1,680 inc. premium

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A Rare Mexican Rowel Spur
17th/18th Century

Entirely of iron and for the left foot, with short flat neck continuing as a downcurved rowel-box, each side carrying two coiled spring-like guards, the former with disc terminal pierced for the rowel, the latter comprising eight sharply-pointed spikes set alternately with shorter pairs of scrolled projections and secured by a pin chiselled with a fist gesturing obscenely (figa), the heel-band wider on one side, with keyhole-shaped piercings against a punched ground and flanged lower border pierced for later jingles, terminals pierced with holes, and with buckle and chains for leathers; together with another plainer example in excavated condition; another, with rounded heel-band chiselled with spiral lines, pierced terminals each with a stud for leathers, downcurved neck pierced and roughly incised with foliage, and star-shaped rowel of six points, 18th century; and a Moroccan prick-spur of characteristic form, the goad centred on a circular plate damascened with silver foliage (mostly missing from the goad), and heel-band of circular section with pierced rectangular leather loops (4)
The first 23.5 cm.

Footnotes

Provenance:
The Second Marzoli Collection, Brescia

For other Mexican spurs (so-called Conquistador spurs) similar to the first, see Antonio Cortes, Hierros Forjados, Coleccion Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Historia Y Etnografia, 1935, pp. 114-118, pls. 17-26; Stephen V. Grancsay, A Loan Exhibition Of Equestrian Equipment From The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, The J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, May 4 to July 3, 1955, nos. 115 and 118 (illustrated); and M. Simmonds & T. Turley, Southwestern Colonial Ironwork, The Spanish Blacksmithing Tradition from Texas to California, Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe, 1980, pp. 110-13

Cf. a similar spur to the first formerly in the Mrs. G.E.P. How Collection and sold in these Rooms, Antique Arms and Armour..., 25 July 2007, lot 94

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Bid now on these items

A Cased Pair Of Scottish 50-Bore Percussion Duelling Or Target Pistols By Alex.r Martin, Glasgow, Mid-19th Century
The medals and associate ephemera and uniforms of Arthur Watts, 6th Inniskilling Dragoons
A Pair Of Highland All-Metal Percussion Belt Pistols Signed Paton & Walsh Perth, Mid 19th century
A Silver-Mounted Left-Hand Dagger, probably German, Italian or English Late 16th Century Or Later
FOUR REPRODUCTION CARVED POWDER HORNS/FLASKS.late 20th century.
THREE CARVED COCONUT ITEMS.18th/19th century.
A COLLECTION OF ANTIQUE AND REPRODUCTION POWDER FLASKS AND RELATED SPORTING ITEMS.
THREE VICTORIAN ARMS AND ARMOUR DECORATIVE ITEMS.