Thanks. This far haven't been able to find a makers mark on it. But I do appreciate the help.All I can say from that picture is it's a grazing bit, probably silver but you'd have to give it a polish to see or check for a makers mark.
Thank you a ton. That is very useful. Im putting in some better pictures now.One needs a full picture and from different perspectives.
The leather work looks like that on a Hungarian whip (pre 1939) I inherited from my father. They are sold as tourist souvenirs. I bought a modern one which is not so nice.
I have a book somewhere on Hungarian tack but I cant read Hungarian and the Hungarian page on Wikipedia is modern and not informative..
The silver was sometimes from Germany.
I expect yu know, Hungary is important in the history of horse tack.
During lock down I have discovered that the history of horse tack is an academic subject in itself. I went to a Zoom seminar on late medieval saddles. So if googling is not helpful, you could search Google scholar and then use Google translate. (I guess Hungarian is Magyar)
Thanks
I purchased it at an estate sale because of the beautiful and intricate silver work and because it has no modern screws or machining. I know very little. So any help would be much welcomed.
TheThe shank shape pegs it as a grazing bit, how it’s swept back from the vertical to allow a horse to graze while wearing it. The mouth has a port and roller, might be called a spade or just a correction mouth.
The bridle looks like a vaquero with romel reins, a traditional Mexican braid of leather and rawhide.
Looking at the mouthpiece it looks like a more modern bit made to look older, probably for the show ring, the use of different materials is something you don’t tend to see in very old bits, most were just steel.
The two patterns appear to match I'm not sure if this helps or shows anything new?Cross posted with Jessey. But sort of on the same lines. (Because the post with its link ran nto techproblems this morning?)
I have after much searching found the catalogue of an exhibiton of saddles held at the Museum of Ethnography (Néprajzi Múzeum) in Budapest in 2002. We did not go to this exhibition as it had just closed. But clearly I was horse obsessed at the time and I bought the catalogue which along with the saddle images includes pictures of some bridles.
Apart from one image of an escort, with simple plaited reins much like on can buy in UK today, there are no riders with this type of rein.
Is it possible that this is a Western bit from USA or Mexico? German metal work was exported to America in the 19th century. We have an American shelf clock with German movement. The clocks and (maybe) bits were ordered from mail order catalogues by rural settlers with no big stores.
This article on such a catalogue includes horse harness.
Mail-Order Catalogs and the Old West - Kristin Holt
Mail-Order Catalogs and the Old West: How did one place an order? How was payment sent? What about delivery options?www.kristinholt.com