Chiseled blackened steel muzzle pierced with designs and lettering, Germany, dated 1543

Chiseled blackened steel muzzle pierced with designs and lettering 'GHIVITDWGPE' probably the initial letters of a biblical text.

A set of horse armour made in Nuremberg, possibly by Kunz Lochner, and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, also has an inscription which combines letters and a date. The inscription appears not on the chamfron, or muzzle, but instead on the horse's chest defense (see Grancsay, 'A Historical Horse Armor', p.176 and fig.1). It reads as follows: '1 5 K 4 8 / I T G V G / H E H Z Sachsen'
Grancsay (p.176) interprets it as follows: '1548 Koburg / Ich traue Gott von ganzem / Herzen Johann Ernst Herzog zu Sachsen' ('I believe in God with all my heart, Johan Ernst, Duke of Saxony'). The Duke resided in Koburg, and Grancsay believes this is the most likely interpretation of the 'K' within the date.

This muzzle would have been placed over the nose and jaws of a horse to stop it biting.The pierced letters around the top edge are G H I V I T D W G P E. A similar inscription on a piece of horse armour suggests that these letters are some sort of religious inscription, abbreviated to its first letters alone. Beneath them is the date 1543.

1107-1893