Saddle, Germany, c. 1440-60 (mixed media)

Wood, antler, birch bark, leather and wax, carved, incised, stained and polished. addle, similar in form to A407, having a high bow or pommel terminating in a scroll, the cantle formed by two upward-curving semi-circular plates. There are traces of three pairs of holes and two single holes on each side for the attachment of the pad, breast-strap, and crupper. Constructed of wood faced with plaques of polished and incised antler. The red, green and black colouring is inlaid hard wax. It is hatched and carved in low-relief with the figures of a woman and a man in the civilian dress of the mid- fifteenth century (below the cantel the figures are repeated with varied composition; the male and female figures being transposed); they hold the ends of scrolls which bear the following inscription (the free translation is that given by Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick): Left Side The Woman speaks: ich · pin · bie 'I am here, I know not how', ich · wans · nit · wie ich · var · von · v. 'I go hence, I know not where', ich · wans · nit · wan nu · wol · auf mit · willen · unvergessen 'Well a day! willingly thou art never forgotten' The Man speaks: ich · frei · mich . all 'I rejoice to be ever thine'. zeit · dein (Obviously the answer to the question below) Right Side - The Man speaks: ich · var · ich · bar 'I go, I stop, the longer I stop' ye · lenger · ich · bar me · greffer · nar 'The more mad I become', dein · ewichleich 'Thine for ever', land · ierigen · varn 'The world o'er your betrothed', The Woman speaks: me · den · krg (?) · ent 'But if the war should end?'