Accession Number

998.040.001.001 a&b

Description

A pair of a British cavalry officer's military dress spurs, the horsehoe-shaped gilt cast metal arm designed to encircle a boot heel, attached to this heel piece a long square steel post leading to a cast gilt extension with a metal wheel intended to be used by the rider to control a horse.

Narrative

These gilt riding spurs were used by Lt. Robert Dunsmuir Harvey on special dress occassions. 

History of Use

These dress spurs were used by Lt. Robert Dunsmmuir Harvey (1878-1901) while he served in the 4th (Queen’s Own) Hussars regiment in India. Following his death in 1901, his regiment sent the spurs and other personal effects to his sister Elizabeth Georgina Harvey and his grandmother Joan Olive Dunsmuir at Craigdarroch. Sometime later, the spurs and other effects came into possession of R.D. Harvey's brother, Col. James Swan Harvey, who kept them at his residence on Knapp Island, B.C. The sabretache and other items were next inherited by J.S. Harvey's son, Robert Oliver Dunsmuir Harvey of Victoria, B.C., and then by his son, the late Robert James Harvey who lived in Victoria, Nanaimo, and before his death in 2013, on Denman Island, B.C.

Date

circa 1899

Dimensions

11 cm x 7.2 cm

Material

Metal, steel; Metal, gold

Technique

Cast; Gilt

Inscription

on the gilt arm, MAXWELL ; on the steel shaft, ?? (an indistinct two-character marking) ; PICADILLY ; LONDON ; also on the steel shaft an indistinct five-character word

Country of Origin

United Kingdom