Need Help With Saddle Identification

[niftytack]

I have this old saddle I found its in pretty good shape the leather is really nice and soft for its age. But I've looked everywhere on the saddle for a maker stamps and come up empty I have two places where there are number stamps so far in my research I have found out that is was made in the 1940's. With the swells being something I've yet to see on any other saddle I would hope that would be something that would help identify it. I would like to restore it and would like to know what it looked like so I can get it to original as possible. It appears that is was re-fleeced with felt and I'm pretty cretin the leathers were replaced and I would like to see what is the best way to finish them as this leather is in need of replacing. give me your thoughts guys

[TinkerTailor]

My father also has a saddle of unknown origin which is very similar and he has narrowed his down to mexico in the late 1800's-early 1900s if that helps much. That is on the opinions of 2 different old saddle makers he has shown it to. It was the swells that they dated it with if i remember the story right.

Those swells really lock you in, His have the same thing. His also has quite a short seat and similar style tooling. The short seat pushes you up against the swells and makes it actually really comfortable and secure feeling. He has told me there was a time or two he kinda got stuck under the swells on top of a real nasty horse, and wished he had an ejection seat.... I am going from memory as i don't have pictures of the saddle in front of me. I will ask him again next time i talk to him.

[bruce johnson]

The felt may help date it some. During wartimes wool was a war commodity and a lot of saddles were done with felt. Option two - felt was used on lower end catalog saddles instead of wool. The felt may be original. It looks like some parts were restitched along the way and the stirrup leathers are replacements. The swells and leg cuts are interesting but hard to say. The tree may or may not necessarily narrow down to a maker. The horn covering style was common in the 30s and 40s, and may be on either side of that time period too. Without a maker stamp it is kind of hard to pin down a maker. Just a number without a maker may not mean much. My great-granddad's saddle has a number on the latigo carrier, but is maker marked by Duhamels in Rapid City, SD. I never paid much attention to the number until I read that is how they marked the model number of the saddle. There are some similarities to your saddle, his came in the 30s.

[oltoot]

As usual, Bruce was Johnny on the spot with a lot of info. It is, I believe what was called a Moose (not Low Moose), and my best wild guess would be Denver (or part of the Denver which could include Rapid City, Laramie, Cheyenne and a few others scene), late WWII. Generally, no maker's mark meant a large contract for certain specs and prices. Sometimes store chains did this for resale in their individual sites. But again, generally, these had to be of pretty good quality or they wouldn't sell. A little bit of history: That method of horn covering was part of a group of tactics that developed as saddlemaking and tanning/finishing of hides evolved. Separate seat jockeys then eight button is another. The leather that we work today is much more malleable than what 1800's shops had available. Then there was that "I'm gonna try something different than what the old man told was the only way it could be done." I doubt seriously that anyone thought of a saddle as a collectible piece of art in 1930 or that some saddles might bring more than a new truck. I'll bet Bruce was right about the felt being original, I can visualize somebody doing that sewing without even taking the saddle all the way apart, doing a bit of contortionism to hold it up under the machine.

[niftytack]

the stitching looks sloppy so that's what made me thing it was done at a later date any way to tell how old the felt is?

[oltoot]

A forensics lab could probably get you age, manufacturer, lot number but it would be costly and take time. I'd just settle for the conventional wisdom that it was used between ~ 1942-46. And maybe a little longer to use up stocks on hand. If you were contracting for 100 you might be interested in saving a few bucks.