Circa 800 – 1000 BC. A rare and highly decorative collection of gold horse harness attachments owned by a cavalier of high social status and no doubt political position. The set includes various buckles, appliques with decorative motifs, eighteen large circular sheet appliques which would likely have formulated a decorative harness on the neck of the horse, and a selection of other button like appliques with decorative design. The Koban culture was a late Bronze Age and Iron Age culture in Northern and Central Caucasus. It is preceded by the Colchian culture of the Western Caucasus and the Kharachoi culture further east. Koban culture is named after the village of Koban, in Northern Ossetia, where in 1869 battle-axes, daggers, decorative items and other objects were discovered in a kurgan. Later, further sides were uncovered finding an array of beautiful artefacts opening our understanding of the culture. Size: L:Set of 50+; 40-70mm / W:30-140mm ; 875g. Provenance: German art gallery, 1922. English art gallery 1988. In a Private English collection since 1996.