Rare teliz saddle cloth in dark blue silk velvet embroidered - Lot 135

Rare teliz saddle cloth in dark blue silk velvet embroidered with gold and silk thread and richly decorated with appliqué motifs. Upper part scalloped and lower part scalloped; circumference highlighted with floral decoration and ribbon composed of Cs, embellished with flowering branches and cartouches surmounted by bouquets at two corners; center bearing a contoured shield of arms, surmounted by a wreath and framed with flowers: quarterly, in 1 : Azure, five fleurs-de-lis in saltire Or; on 2: Gules, three bendlets Argent between eight six-pointed mullets Or in the direction of the bendlets in 1, 3, 3, and 1; on 3: Vert, a bar wavy Argent charged with three escallops Or; on 4: Or, thirteen torteaux Azure (or heurtes) in 3, 3, 3, 3 and 1. Portugal, John V period, circa 1710/40 H. 130 cm - L. 153 cm (accidents, missing parts and restorations) Provenance : - Joseph E. Widener Collection (1871-1943), Philadelphia - P.W. French & Company, New York, 1925 - Purchase from Maurice Margules, 1980-1990, New York (see catalog page, fig.a) The coats of arms in 1 are those of the Guedes, or Guedez family, those in 2 of the Barros family, and those in 4 of the Castro family. These three families are among the most important of the Portuguese nobility. The arms in 3 are probably those of the Rego family, another major Portuguese lineage, whose arms of Vert, a wavy bend Argent, charged with three escallops Or may have been slightly modified (the wavy bend becoming a wavy bar) for the sake of legibility. This type of saddle cloth, teliz in Portuguese, was used for court festivities, such as parades and bullfights. It covered the backs of horses, which were led by hand without saddles, leaving the coat of arms visible to identify their owners. Saddlecloths are extremely fragile textiles, and very few of them have survived to the present day. The Museum of Portuguese Decorative Arts preserves an example bearing the Casa Cadava coat of arms, dating as it does here from the reign of John V of Portugal (1707-1750). The National Carriage Museum in Lisbon exhibits two from the following reign: one on a green velvet background embellished with silver embroidery bearing the arms of King José I (fig.b), the other on a red velvet background belonging to Pedro Alcântara e Meneses, fourth Marquis of Marialva and the king's first squire (fig.c). These luxurious telizes embroidered in silver or gold are precious testimonies to the ostentatious taste of the great Portuguese nobility in the 18th century. Works consulted: - A. Godinho, Livro da nobreza e da perfeição das armas dos reis cristãos e nobres linhagens dos reinos e senhorios de Portugal, folios X, XL & XXXIX - A. de Lima Carreira, Armorial Lusitano: Genealogia e Heráldica, 1961, p. 87-88