Rowel Spur (c. 1700): Art, History and Details

Rowel Spur (c. 1700) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Instead of a "prick" terminus at the neck, the rowel spur had a rotating wheel installed between two prongs. This type of spur gradually supplemented the prick spur as a safer and less severe alternative for the horse. Rowel spurs first appeared during the 1200s and were in general use by the 1300s.

Object facts

• Title: Rowel Spur
• Date: c. 1700
• Culture: Spain
• Type: Arms and Armor
• Technique: steel
• Dimensions: Diameter: 7.2 cm (2 13/16 in.); Overall: 9.5 cm (3 3/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Arms & Armor
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1916.1568

A detail from the museum

Spurs became more than an equestrian tool, but a piece of male jewelry that would be worn even not when riding.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of Arms and Armour. [Boston, Massachusetts]: [Frank Gair Macomber], 1900.
• Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998.
• Fliegel, Stephen N. Arms and Armor: The Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland, Ohio]: The Museum, 1998.

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.