Set for One Horse for Poste à la Française

Set for One Horse for Poste à la Française Harness, France, Late 19th Century The harnesses of Count Mikołaj Potocki were supplemented in the 1920s by the tack deriving from his Parisian stables at Av. Friedland. After the count’s death in 1921, as a part of inheritance after him, the harnesses and the fittings from 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, fourth ordynat, his successor. Among the Parisian movables, next to the items of furniture and valuable trinkets, as well as equestrian paraphernalia, there were sets of harnesses. The most impressive was the poste à la française harness, comprising several individual sets which were used in horse teams. It is made of black patent leather, has a broad breast-plate and instead of leather traces, halters made of rope, only partially trimmed with leather. The most impressive is the bridle with a yellow browband, decorated with badger hair and a yellow neck strap with round bells, also decorated with badger hair. The fittings are made of brass, the blinkers of the cheekpiece and the backstraps feature openwork oval heraldic emblems with the gold Pilawa coat of arms surrounded with a banderole with the Scutum opponebat scutis motto. Aldona Cholewianka-Kruszyńska