Age Info and advice on rebuilding W.R. Thompson saddle

[wyldflower]

Hello ~

Attached are some photos of an old saddle I bought at a thrift store to practice tearing down and putting together as part of my saddle-making aspiration and education

After I got it home, I tried researching the saddlemaker's mark - W.R. Thompson, maker, Rifle, CO. I was able to find this much out courtesy of vintagegunleather.com:

"In the later part of the 1800s William R. Thompson was a very famous saddle maker, and designer whose designs were used by many saddle makers throughout the west. In 1847 William R. Thompson was born, and while a young teen, he started learning saddle making and working as a saddle maker in various Saddleries as a younger adult. One of W. R. Thompson's saddle designs was the White River Saddle Tree, which he designed later in his career. In 1888, W. R. Thompson had his own Saddlery in Rifle, Colorado and he worked this Saddlery until his death in 1908. Although W. R. Thompson died in 1908, his Company continued to operate until 1941, the Company ended when the last owner E. C. Webb died."

The examples of the maker's stamp on the website match those on the saddle I have.

Any information anyone might have or could point me to about the approximate age of my saddle, and if this tree is the White River Saddle Tree referenced. Any information about the tree design (purpose, etc.) would be helpful also.

As for my plans with the saddle - I bought it to tear apart as a learning tool, and if the tree was salvageable (it feels very solid), possibly rebuilding it. The leather overall is a little dry but doesn't have any cracking. Sadly, mice and rats have had snacked on the skirts and a few other parts. From what I can tell, the leather seems to have pretty good care until recently. I'm guessing that it really doesn't have any value as a collectible item because of the chewed up leather and cut off fenders, but thought I'd ask before I tore it apart!

Any advice on proceeding with a tear apart and/or rebuild is very welcomed.

I really appreciate the willingness of the folks on this board to share their knowledge - I've learned so much by reading posts and responses.

thanks so much,

Dixie

[bruce johnson]

Dixie,

For what it is worth, my thoughts. That saddle looks pretty restorable from the pictures. The big things look pretty decent - swells, seat, cantle. That cantle pocket is way cool. Fenders and skirts can be made to match easier than any of the other parts. This would not be the one I'd pick to take apart to see how a saddle is made. I would restore it as a looker. With a history like that, I'd find another one for a project saddle.

[bruce johnson]

Dixie,

I missed it on the first look. What is the horn like? or has it been broken off?

[jonwatsabaugh]

Dixie,

Keep in mind, if you want to do a resto on this old rig it should have square, pointy skirts and jockeys. If you look at the present skirts and jockeys, it is obvious at some point they have been cut, resulting in the large radius. I've seen a number of old square skirt saddles done like that. Those big old skirts really curl up at the corners after they've been hanging in the barn for 50 years and they ain't gonna flatten back down so alot of folks just whacked em' off and try and get some more use out em'.

From what I can tell in the photos, this does indeed appear to be a White River style tree. Neat old piece!

Jon

[wyldflower]

Hi Bruce ~

Thanks so much for the input and I'm going to follow your and Jon's advice and keep this as a restoration project. The swells and seat are in really good shape I think for it's age; the cantle is pretty good too except for the binding which has worn away or come loose in a few spots. The left jockey though may be a problem - it's come unstitched at the edges and the edges are ragged.

The horn was covered with masking tape that must have been layered an inch thick lol. I got most of it off, and yes, the horn is intact and solidly attached. There's even leather on it still -

the cap is almost crumbled away, but I thought was kinda neat there any leather at all still on it.

Now I need to find a place to store it until I trust myself to make it pretty again

Dixie

Dixie,

I missed it on the first look. What is the horn like? or has it been broken off?

[wyldflower]

Hi Jon~

Ah! I wondered why the border around the skirts and jockeys just ran off the edges! That makes sense. The fleece is in really good shape, and with all the masking tape around the horn, I'm gonna guess this saddle was in use until fairly recently. It's really a shame that it was left out in a barn for the mice to chew on. The more I learn about the history of these old rigs and those who made them, the more interested I get. I'm not sure that's a good sign! LOL!

Any pointers on where to dig for information about the tree design and/or the maker?

Thanks for the info and feedback, very helpful! I was excited to have it just cuz it was a neat old saddle, but I'm super excited to have it now and learn more about it. Only now I still need to go find an old junker to tear apart - oh well!

Dixie

Dixie,

Keep in mind, if you want to do a resto on this old rig it should have square, pointy skirts and jockeys. If you look at the present skirts and jockeys, it is obvious at some point they have been cut, resulting in the large radius. I've seen a number of old square skirt saddles done like that. Those big old skirts really curl up at the corners after they've been hanging in the barn for 50 years and they ain't gonna flatten back down so alot of folks just whacked em' off and try and get some more use out em'.

From what I can tell in the photos, this does indeed appear to be a White River style tree. Neat old piece!

Jon

[hidepounder]

Dixie,

I agree with Bruce and Jon, and as a tooler I am particularly interested in the tooling pattern I see on the seat. It is very unusual to see a pattern that was done like that one, on a saddle of that era. It demonstrates a lot of the design attributes not found until the 1950's and 1960's. The tooler was way ahead of his time on this one!

Bobby

[wyldflower]

Hi Bobby~

Thanks for the information about the tooling! I hadn't seen tooling anything quite like it before - most of the old saddles I've seen don't have any tooling on the seat surface, only on the cantle "dish" part of the seat (sorry, I'm sure there's a proper term for that part of a saddle's anatomy!). That this one had both, but were somewhat different from each other - cool!

If I were to try to preserving this design, how would I go about it? My first thought is doing a rubbing, and then transferring the pattern via tracepaper. Any thoughts?

Dixie

Dixie,

I agree with Bruce and Jon, and as a tooler I am particularly interested in the tooling pattern I see on the seat. It is very unusual to see a pattern that was done like that one, on a saddle of that era. It demonstrates a lot of the design attributes not found until the 1950's and 1960's. The tooler was way ahead of his time on this one!

Bobby

[hidepounder]

Dixie,

A rubbing is the way I would do it.

Bobby