Bridle bit with the arms of Rasse van Gavere (de Gavre), Lor - Lot 18

Lot n° 18
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Estimation :
55000 - 75000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 125 281EUR
Bridle bit with the arms of Rasse van Gavere (de Gavre), Lor - Lot 18
Bridle bit with the arms of Rasse van Gavere (de Gavre), Lord of Eksaarde France or Flanders, early 14th century H. 21 cm Curb Bit with the Arms of Rasse van Gavere (de Gavre), Lord of Eksaarde France or Flanders, early 14th century H. 8 1/4 in 563 CH Provenance: - Belgian collection; Sale Sotheby's London, April 20, 1989, no. 4 Bibliography: - Jean-Marie Van der Eeckhout, "Le rôle d'armes Dupuy: un armorial de chevaliers flamands du début du XIVe siècle", Le Parchemin, 77e année, n°397, janv-fev. 2012. - Marina Viallon, "New Research on an Important Fourteenth-Century Enameled Horse Bit from the Angevin Court of Naples." The Metropolitan museum Journal, v. 54, 2019. Gilt bronze branches, with a straight banquet pierced by a hanging eye, adorned with cross-hatched molding and at the bottom with a small chased dragon. Two gilt-iron reel rings with large conical heads held the now-defunct double iron mouthpiece between the two banquets. D-shaped extensions, each with a splint at the rear, to which is riveted a large copper medallion decorated with champlevé enamel. It features a shield bearing the arms of a branch of the Van Gavere/de Gavre family (de gueules à trois lions d'or et au lambel d'azur), surrounded by three dragons standing out against a blue background. Bottom of straight branches, decorated with engraved and punched geometrical motifs, linked with conical-headed reels by a large two-link spacer chain. At the ends, two other conical-headed reels held the rein rings. The rôle d'armes Dupuy (BnF, Fonds Dupuy no. 259), an armorial from around 1470 but a copy of the d'Urfé armorial produced around 1380, listing the arms of Flemish knights living in the early 14th century, lists these arms as those of Rasse van Gavere, known as Mulaert. Although his birth and death dates are unknown, we do know that he succeeded his father Jean I as lord of Eskaarde in 1291, and was taken prisoner in France in 1300. He is then mentioned in 1302 in the accounts of the city of Bruges, and is said to have been alderman of Lokeren in 1309. In the late 13th and 14th centuries, bits made entirely of bronze or gilded copper, with enamel decoration, were luxury items generally reserved for leisure or ceremonial riding, due to the relative fragility of their material compared to the iron that made up the majority of medieval bits. They complemented the rich harnesses adorned with pendants and other enamelled plates, often heraldic, which were particularly fashionable in Europe at the time. These 14th-century luxury bits are extremely rare today, with only a handful of known examples, such as the large Neapolitan examples of a slightly different type in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (04.3.478a,b) and the Armeria Reale in Turin (D.58). The only other known ornate bit corresponding to the type presented here is in the collections of the Musée de Cluny (CL.11461). Good condition, gilding incomplete, mouthpiece missing. Translation at the end of the catalog
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