The Four Rivers Heritage Area is compiling information about horses in the region, which led me to examine some of our collections for horse related artifacts. The following image is of a brass harness decoration which measures about three inches long and was found during excavations at the Governor Calvert House:In his influential book A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America published in 1969, Ivor Noel Hume briefly mentions similar artifacts and attributes them to the 18th century.
Archaeology in Annapolis uncovered a similar, though less ornate, brass harness decoration from the Reynolds' Tavern site. During William Reynolds' occupation of the site, there was a stable behind the Tavern, which further supports the claim that this object was a harness decoration.
The MAC Lab website also features information and photographs of similar artifacts, which they identify as leather ornaments. The website states, "More often than not ... the metal ornaments were purely decorative and might have been placed on just about any leather strap, bag, saddle pad, sword hanger, etc." The information on leather ornaments is included in the "small finds" section of the website. The term "small finds" is used for objects that are found in small quantities on sites and therefore are difficult to analyze and interpret. The idea behind this portion of the MAC Lab website is to compile information on "small finds" so that they may eventually be used in site analysis.
As you can see we would love to learn more about leather ornaments so please add comments to this post with any additional information you may have.
To view the MAC Lab "small finds" site follow this link: http://www.jefpat.org/diagnostic/Small%20Finds/leather%20escutcheons/Web%20Pages/LeatherOrnaments.htm
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