1914 Merit Badge HORSE BRASS awarded by the UK R.S.P.C.A. or Royal Society for PREVENTION of CRUELTY to ANIMALS

A horse brass is a brass plaque used for the decoration of horse harness gear, especially for shire and parade horses. They became especially popular in England from the mid-19th century until their general decline alongside the use of the draft horse, and remain a collectors item today.

By the late 19th century heavy horses were decorated with brasses of all kinds and sizes.

During this era working horse parades were popular throughout the British Isles and prize or merit awards were given, some by the Royal Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA).

Horse brasses were often highly prized by the "carters", who decorated their horse with them. Other horse brass subjects include advertising, royalty commemoration, and in later years, souvenir brasses for places and events, many of which are still being made and used today.

Collection

Collecting horse brasses for their own sake other than as decorations for harness seems to have commenced around 1880, when women bought the newly issued, pierced-design, die-struck brasses which were used for pin-cushions. A little later these were often used as fingerplates on doors which can be corroborated by accounts in the trade magazine, Saddler and Harness by the veteran saddler William Albery or Horsham in Sussex. From 1890 onward, collecting the various types of brass, i.e. face-pieces, swingers, and hame-plates, etc., became a highly popular pastime amongst the upper and middle classes. Indeed, the collecting of these humble brasses became especially popular amongst academics with many famous, early collections being formed by public schoolmasters and other prominent professionals, such as A.H. Tod, a Master at Charterhouse School and Dr Kirk of Pickering in Yorkshire, whose collection is still housed at the York Castle Museum in York.