A branch or pad cheek steel bit. The mouthpiece is stamped "Whippy & Co" and "M". It has a low port. The fixed cheeks are curved, each bears a curb rein loop, there is a curved shackle bar.
The bit has its original curb hooks and a curb chain.
There is a round brass cheek badge or boss on each side of the bit. In the centre of each cheek badge there is silver coloured harp, crown and shamrock, surrounding these there is a garter or border which reads " Pristinae virtutis memores". The crown at the top of each badge is the Tudor crown - this means that it is later than Queen Victoria but before Queen Elizabeth II - so 1901-1952. Whippy Steggall & Co was established in 1790 and had a shop on Oxford Street until the 1940's.
The cross on the top of one of the crowns is bent
Dimensions : mouthpiece 12.7cm (5"), cheeks 17.7cm (7") not including rein loops
