how to find info

[roo4u]

any suggestions on how to find out the age of a saddle or any other information about it when it doesnt have a makers mark? i havent had it completely apart yet so dont know if theres any marks on the tree. are saddle trees typically marked with any kind of information? i think at some point this saddle had silver or some other metal decoration-it is fully basket stamped and has a border of small circles each side of the circle is pierced so whatever decoration it had was removed at some point. this border runs the length of the stirrup fenders, on the skirts and the cantle. anyone know when that type of saddle decoration was popular? it is a well made saddle.

any suggestions would be appreciated...i can post a picture if anyone thinks it would help.

tracy

[Randy Cornelius]

I would not count on anything being on the tree. Sometimes there is some markings or writing. I tore one apart one time that had the saddlemakers business card glued to the tree. I even tried to call the number but they were long gone. Most of the makers always put thier stamp on it somewhere. But some did not, one that comes to mind that was a very popular saddle maker that never put a stamp on his work was Ted Flowers, he made mostly silver parade saddles. They are very sought after by the Shriners in the Mounted Guard.

Go ahead and post a picture some of us out there might know something.

Also get a before and after shot of the work you do on it.

Randy

[Don101]

Tracy without seeing a pic it is hard to tell the age, there are many things that can roughly put a date to a saddle with a plus or minus 10 -15 years, the type of rigging, the seat style, the fork style, the cantle, the skirting and so on combine all these factors and you can roughly find the date to when the saddle was made,

also the stamping can be of help as you mensioned a basket weave, basket weave wasnt around or shall i say popular untill around the late 1880s 90s, so if you have a saddle with BW its going to be after the 1890s, like i said its a rough guide, Don

[roo4u]

ok i think i got this picture thing figured out

the decoration had already been removed when i got it. it had two rows on cantle, one row all away around fenders, wrapped around the welts on the swells, all the way around the skirts, around the neck of the saddle horn. had a buckle rope strap on the front of the swell right side. i replaced the sheepskin and the saddle strings when i got it as the original wool had worn thru where the thongs are pulled thru the skirt to hold them onto tree. when i took old wool off i found that there was a liner of leather all the way around between the skirt and the wool, ust under the edge of the skirting, im assume to protect the horse from theprongs of whatever decoration was attached.

[Don101]

Hi Tracy looking at the pics i think that it could have been built as early as around the 1950 or so, it has quite a large swell fork and the cantle is verry low which is typical for this period and looking at the angle of the seat possible a womans saddle, are you sure that it had decoration removed or was it just stamped with a circle as a border? Don

[roo4u]

thanks for the info. yes im sure it had decoration...the circles are not very deep and are pierced on either side and when you look at the leather from underneath you can se they caused a tiny bit of wear on every piercing when they pulled the decoration off.

[SilverSaddle1]

I would not count on anything being on the tree. Sometimes there is some markings or writing. I tore one apart one time that had the saddlemakers business card glued to the tree. I even tried to call the number but they were long gone. Most of the makers always put thier stamp on it somewhere. But some did not, one that comes to mind that was a very popular saddle maker that never put a stamp on his work was Ted Flowers, he made mostly silver parade saddles. They are very sought after by the Shriners in the Mounted Guard.

Go ahead and post a picture some of us out there might know something.

Also get a before and after shot of the work you do on it.

Randy

Hello, While it is true that Ted Flowers did not mark all of his saddles, there are quite a few out there that are indeed marked, either by silver tag in the seat or leather stamp. I have seen both. Some are marked "The Spot Shop" and some are marked "Ted Flowers". Of the 16 Flowers sets I own, 3 are marked in the seat.

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