Some 15 years ago at a local flea market in Zaragoza, appeared a man selling stirrups for several months. The price he asked was some 20 euros each.
I bought 5 in different occasions and I asked him the origin of them. He said that a collapsed stable in Calatayud had been demolished for new construction and some 40 stirrups had appeared there.
Calatayud is full of
mudejar architecture from XV and XVI centuries, this is Christian buildings made by Muslim workers and techniques.
The curious thing is that each time I find almost identical stirrups to mine they are described as Turkish (google images with Ottoman stirrups and there they are). See the third image, coming from the compilation link from the post above, where there are several. From what I have seen, Ottoman stirrups do not have the rosette, when they have raised sides, the sole is flat, and they often have tubular sides.
My stirrups are made of iron and covered in inclusions of silver wire (only remains but the engraving is still there). I tried to rescue one of them by electrolysis, but the silver had been displaced by the iron oxides and became loose when this was removed. Therefore I just oiled them.
Motives are geometrical (islamic) or vegetal (more baroque than islamic). Two different sorts of side reinforcements (all along the side or a triangle at the top). They have more simple or complex rosettes on the flat part. The common characteristic that differentiates them from other Muslim areas is the upper ring (excepted Morocco).
In the next two pictures, I just found, on the left, they are (said to be) XVth century from old Granada kingdom and they are at Granada city museum.
In the included pdf below from the Spanish Museum collections online information, two examples similar to mine present in the Lazaro Galdeano Museum are Spanish and dated 1551 to 1650.
From this, I would guess that Moorish ironsmiths continued their trade in the Christian kingdoms for quite long. Probably there were bidirectional relationships with Morocco and Tunis, not the least when moors were massively expelled from Spain in 1609-1613 and they continued working there, bringing their styles. Moors were not allowed to migrate to America, therefore these pieces do not exist there. There are other Spanish styles made at the same time. The typical closed brass Colombian stirrup seems to have evolved from a type from Galicia originally made in wood.
Last but three (red) picture... Shockingly, these XVIIth stirrups were still used for the original purpose until recently.
Next, after checking Spanish antique shops offerings, it seems to me that in the XVIIIth century the type degenerated to the simple construction of the last but two picture, possibly because the original workers were gone. These in Spain are called
estribos vaqueros cowboy stirrups, and they are nowadays made new in nylon.
At this moment I start guessing that many stirrups from Spanish moors are not well identified.
The last two pictures are from pieces in The Metropolitan Museum (
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/29321) and the British Museum (
https://www.britishmuseum.org/resear...artId=1&page=1), both said (without much conviction) to be Moroccan and from XIXth-XXth century.
To me, they are extraordinarily similar to the XVIIth century Spanish examples. One of my stirrups has engraved a similar geometric circular design to that of the Metropolitan (no silver or gold left, that will be difficult to make pictures). I can think of 4 possibilities.
- The description is wrong and these pieces are Spanish and XVI-XVIIth centuries.
- Spanish Moorish stirrups (before 1613) belong to the same stylistically group with Moroccan ones.
- Moroccan stirrups were influenced by ironsmiths from Spain after 1613. Or from the Fall of Granada Kingdom in 1492.
- Spain imported large amounts of stirrups from Morocco and this style was not made in Spain.
The first need will be to see examples of Moroccan stirrups from before 1613... To be continued.