Horse Brass is a brass plaque used for the decoration on a horses harness, Most commonly used on shire and parade horses. They became popular in England from the mid-19th century but declined alongside the use of the draft horse. Horse Brasses remain a collectors item today.
Factories started to mass produce these Horse Brasses and there are over 2,000 designs know to exist. Some of the designs only vary slightly pending on the factory they were produced in. The two main types of Horse Brasses are cast brasses, this is where the design is pressed into a sand mould and cast molten brass was poured in to produce a raw casting, later to be worked to the correct design specifications. Pressed brasses this is where thinner rolled out brass has the design pressed into the metal. The idea of this was to be cheaper to produce and lighter for the work horses.
Let’s take a look in more detail to the individual Horse Brasses that make up the harness. Featured in the image below are 5 cast Horse Brass designs that complete this harness.
Swan design – This specific design is known as Resting Swan in laurel reef wreath. However there are various other Swan designs and some are in pressed brass
Stag Head design – This is believed to be Edwardian. This is a little more rare, it is frequent to see the pressed brass version.
Windmill and the Horse Head within a Horse Shoe designs – These are cast brass and are quite common.
Patterned Horse Brass – These patterns have no particular name, some designs are family crests, some were incorporated with celestial attributes and most were decorative patterns.
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