These are lightweight officer's spurs in close-plated iron. Close plate was a method of fusing thin silver sheet to an iron base. In the 19th century, the military officer's spur tended to get heavier; the dress spur proper, often of cast brass and with a short iron spiggot at the heel, came into use with the new soft leather dress boots.

These are heavy duty military/hunting examples in polished iron. As the 19th century wore on, the shanks got shorter and tended to lose their sepentine shape. The buckle was normally worn on the outside instep of the boot, secured by a leather strap or small chain under the instep, with another one running over it.

This somewhat damaged piece is a rare survivor of a strange design which resurfaces in the 18th and 19th centuries in silver, in England at any rate. The rowel spur first appeared in the 14th century and normally had fixed arms, as opposed to hinged ones.

Rowel spurs first appeared in the 14th century. Originally the shanks were very long (in the Gothic period), getting progressively shorter as time went by. This classic design was worn well into the 17th century throughout northern Europe, and would have been standard fare in the Thirty Years War and the English Civil War.

This type of spur would have been worn in the Crusader armies in the early Middle Ages. They were really only superceded when the new style Gothic spurs appeared, with much longer shanks and the introduction of rowels in the 14th century.

This is probably a north European item and the ironwork would indicate that it was fixed to the horseman's boot permanently (the two small projections at the top would appear to be iron staples/nails that would have been fixed into the heel of the boot). It probably had a small 1cm-diameter spike rowel, now largely disappeared.

This type of spur would have been worn in the Crusader armies in the early Middle Ages. They were really only superceded when the new style Gothic spurs appeared, with much longer shanks and the introduction of rowels in the 14th century.