Ceremonial saddle

The wooden frame with the side pieces standing up on the horse’s back is characteristically Hungarian. In the middle of the saddle skirts stand lions rampant framing a symmetrical bush decoration. Lions embodying power and authority begin to appear on horse tack decorations from the Renaissance onwards, but they become a particularly significant, symbolic decorative motif in the 17th century. The lions depicted in profile, with coiling tail, often with crowns, came to be known as “Czech lions”, and in Hungary, depictions of them have survived from the time of King Sigismund of Luxemburg (1368–1437).