Lock in the Form of a Horse with Saddle

This stylized horse-shaped lock is composed of three elements—two halves of the horse and a pin. The horse has pointed curving ears, circular eyes, a slightly open mouth, and a thin curving neck. Raised sections on the upper portions of the fore- and hindquarters may indicate musculature. All four legs are separated, and hooves are modeled. Two points on top of the rectangular body indicate a saddle. The short, stubby tail is part of the L-shaped pin mechanism, which is also decorated with a simple bird perched above the bend. These cast-brass figurines in the shape of quadrupeds functioned as locks. Each was composed of two concave pieces joined together with a pin. A locking mechanism should be positioned in the interior of this intact, locked specimen. The bolts were cast separately from the bodies. To close the lock, the bolt was inserted through one end of the animal’s body and secured at the other (1). Locks of this design and style continued to be made in modern times (2). While the Harvard piece may be of medieval origin, it is equally possible that it was produced more recently. NOTES: 1. For diagrams of possible locking mechanisms used in this device, see P. Tanavoli and J. T. Wertime, Locks from Iran: Pre-Islamic to Twentieth Century (Washington, DC, 1976) 33, figs. 6A-B; and G. Vikan and J. Nesbitt, Security in Byzantium: Locking, Sealing and Weighing (Washington, DC, 1980) 6, figs. 11-12. 2. See Tanavoli and Wertime 1976 (supra 1) 84-85, no. 119, pl. 5, for a seventeenth- to eighteenth-century example of comparable form and dimensions. Lisa M. Anderson and Alicia Walker