Double Collar Harness

Double Collar Harness, France, Schleuchter, late 1880s. The harnesses of Count Mikołaj Potocki from his Parisian stables at Av. Friedland were added to the items kept in the Łańcut coach rooms in the 1920s. After the count’s death in 1921, as a part of inheritance after him, the harnesses and the fittings of the Parisian coach rooms which ˗ similarly to the Gala Coach Room in the Castle Stables ˗ functioned as exceptionally sophisticated stable/ parlour premises ˗ were transferred to Łańcut, because Mikołaj Potocki made a distant cousin, Alfred Antoni Potocki, fourth Ordynat, his successor. The Parisian movables, next to the items of furniture and valuable trinkets, as well as equestrian paraphernalia, also feature sets of harnesses. Among them, there is a double collar harness of black patent leather manufactured by Duprey. It is a classic, high quality English-style harness with thin collar pads, narrow, delicate backstraps with braces and a breeching. The collar harness fittings are made of brass, with heraldic emblems with gold Pilawa on a shield surrounded with a circular motto: Scutum opponebat scutis, above which a count’s crown with a jewel was placed on the blinkers of the cheekpiece and the backstraps. Aldona Cholewianka-Kruszyńska