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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1920.44.260
Title
Part of a Snaffle
Classification
Riding Equipment
Work Type
horse trapping
Date
late 6th-early 3rd century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Etruria
Period
Archaic period to Classical
Culture
Etruscan
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304057

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Leaded bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
3.5 x 4.5 x 4.6 cm (1 3/8 x 1 3/4 x 1 13/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Leaded Bronze:
Cu, 64.08; Sn, 4.59; Pb, 30.9; Zn, 0.002; Fe, 0.03; Ni, 0.04; Ag, 0.06; Sb, 0.1; As, 0.19; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, 0.011; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001

J. Riederer

Technical Observations: The patina is a dull, pitted black over brown; there is a white material, perhaps wax, in the pits. Two prongs are missing. The snaffle is a solid cast.


Carol Snow (submitted 2002)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Miss Elizabeth Gaskell Norton, Boston, MA and Miss Margaret Norton, Cambridge, MA (by 1920), gift; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1920.

Note: The Misses Norton were daughters of Charles Elliot Norton (1827-1908).

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Misses Norton
Accession Year
1920
Object Number
1920.44.260
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
The cylindrical snaffle, hollow on the interior, originally had three rows of three conical spikes on its exterior. Two of the spikes in one row are now missing. The spikes are evenly spaced. This piece would have been one of a pair, each at either end of the bit (1).

NOTES:

1. For an illustration of how the snaffle would have worked as part of a complete bit, see M. Garsson, ed., Une histoire d’alliage: Les bronzes antiques des réserves du Musée d’Archéologie Méditerranéenne, exh. cat. (Marseille, 2004) 32, no. 17; and M. Sannibale, Le armi della collezione Gorga al Museo Nazionale Romano, Studia archaeologica 92 (Rome, 1998) 253-96, nos. 319-498, esp. figs. 8-9. See also F. Jurgeit, Die etruskischen und italischen Bronzen sowie Gegenstände aus Eisen, Blei, und Leder im Badischen Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, Terra Italia 5 (Pisa, 1999) 183-86, nos. 263-77, pls. 91-92, esp. Form I (nos. 263-66); and A. Naso, I bronzi etruschi e italici del Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Kataloge vor- und frühgeschichtlicher Altertümer 33 (Mainz, 2003) 169-73, nos. 230-50, esp. 235, pls. 81-82.


Lisa M. Anderson

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu