Pricked Spur (1200s): Art, History and Details

Pricked Spur (1200s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The spur was an essential part of the knight's equipment. Fastened to his heels by means of straps and buckles, it was used to prod a horse into action. These examples represent the oldest type recorded, the "pricked" spur, so-called because its neck terminated in a spike. The pricked spur was replaced during the Middle Ages by the "rowel" spur, with a rotating spiked wheel.

Object facts

• Title: Pricked Spur
• Date: 1200s
• Culture: Spain
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel
• Dimensions: Overall: 14.9 x 7.9 cm (5 7/8 x 3 1/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.1604

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Gilchrist, Helen Ives. A Catalogue of the Collection of Arms & Armor Presented to the Cleveland Museum of Art by Mr. and Mrs. John Long Severance; 1916-1923. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1924.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.