Forensic Fashion

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>Costume Studies

>>1526 Ottoman sipahi

>>>context

>>>>bard

Subject: beylerbey commander of sipahi knights

Culture: Ottoman Turk

Setting: imperial warfare, Eastern Europe / Middle East 1514-1576

Object: bard

* Metropolitan Museum of Art > Stone Gallery of Arms and Armor

"Chanfron  Gilt copper  Turkish, Ottoman period, late 16th century

Armor made of gilt copper (tombak) was probably too flimsy for use in battle but was ideally suited for parades.  Tombak helmets, shields, chanfrons, and other military equipment may have been worn by the Ottoman imperial guard."  ...

* Metropolitan Museum of Art > Stone Gallery of Arms and Armor

"Chanfron (Horse's Head Defense)  Steel  Turkish, Ottoman period, 16th century

The surface is engraved with symmetrical floral arabesques.  This piece would originally have been part of an entire garniture for man and horse."  ...

* Metropolitan Museum of Art > Stone Gallery of Arms and Armor

"Saddle 

Wood, bone leather, textile, polychromy 

Turkish, Ottoman period,

16th century

This saddle is the only known Ottoman example of its type.  The pierced leather decoration appliquéd on different colored grounds occurs on a small number of Ottoman objects -- bow cases and quivers, canteens -- of the sixteenth century . All of them appear to have been made either for the ruling family or for high-ranking officers."  ...

* Metropolitan Museum of Art > Stone Gallery of Arms and Armor

"Armors for Man and Horse   ...  The chanfron (defense for the horse's head) is engraved with arabesques of a type suggesting an Ottoman Turkish origin between about 1525 and 1550." ...

* Higgins Armory Museum > Scimitars to Samurai > Arms around the World

"Shaffron (horse's head armor), 1500-25

Ottoman Empire or Mamluk Egypt  Steel; gilding; copper or copper allowy; traces of leather  Weight: 2 lb. 4 oz." ...