06-25-2013, 11:14 AM
Let me understand this saddle issue. Forgive me if I am going over old ground.
As I understand it, in the Connolly saddle, the cover is stitched firmly around the tree, so that it can only be removed by cutting or unpicking the stitches; in the Carlisle saddle, the cover is slipped over the tree but not secured, so that it can be removed relatively easily. One then has to consider why this should be necessary. Possibly, the substructure of the saddle, tree or stuffing, or the cover itself needed maintenance and/or repair fairly frequently, making it necessary for the cover to be readily removeable. Alternatively, the Carlisle saddle may have simply been a Connolly saddle with side flaps and the under-panel, which secured the cover around the tree, had been cut away and lost when the cover was removed from the tree.
It is suggested, I think, that the owner's name was scratched on the stiffeners to identify them when the saddle was stripped down for repair and to ensure that they were replaced on the right saddle. A simpler explanation might be that, as the bronze-worker who made the stiffeners is unlikely to have been the same person as the saddle-maker who constructed the saddle, the bronze-worker scratched the owner's name on the stiffeners after he had made them, so that the saddle-maker could mount them on the correct saddle when he constructed it.
As I understand it, in the Connolly saddle, the cover is stitched firmly around the tree, so that it can only be removed by cutting or unpicking the stitches; in the Carlisle saddle, the cover is slipped over the tree but not secured, so that it can be removed relatively easily. One then has to consider why this should be necessary. Possibly, the substructure of the saddle, tree or stuffing, or the cover itself needed maintenance and/or repair fairly frequently, making it necessary for the cover to be readily removeable. Alternatively, the Carlisle saddle may have simply been a Connolly saddle with side flaps and the under-panel, which secured the cover around the tree, had been cut away and lost when the cover was removed from the tree.
It is suggested, I think, that the owner's name was scratched on the stiffeners to identify them when the saddle was stripped down for repair and to ensure that they were replaced on the right saddle. A simpler explanation might be that, as the bronze-worker who made the stiffeners is unlikely to have been the same person as the saddle-maker who constructed the saddle, the bronze-worker scratched the owner's name on the stiffeners after he had made them, so that the saddle-maker could mount them on the correct saddle when he constructed it.
Michael King Macdona
And do as adversaries do in law, -
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
(The Taming of the Shrew: Act 1, Scene 2)
And do as adversaries do in law, -
Strive mightily, but eat and drink as friends.
(The Taming of the Shrew: Act 1, Scene 2)
