D. E. Walker Visalia Saddle with Tapaderos, ca. 1890
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GUEST:
Well, I went on vacation up at Lake George, New York, and I saw it in a store that was going out of business, and they used it as a display piece. They had a "for sale" sign on it. I went home from vacation and I thought about it. I went back up to Lake George, like, two days later and I bought it.
APPRAISER:
Do you ride? Are you real interested in the West or...
GUEST:
No, I just... I don't ride, but I did see it as a piece of artwork. It's all hand-tooled leather and silver. And to me, I fell in love with it.
APPRAISER:
Well, this saddle tells its own story. Number one, it's got the maker's mark here. "D.E. Walker, maker, Visalia, California." D.E. Walker was a 19th-century saddlemaker. He actually bought Visalia out. Visalia and Walker started in the 1870s and he died in 1899. And so when that happened, that ended it. We know this is a pre-1899 saddle. D.E. Walker saddles are considered a horseman's saddle by serious horsemen. This is one of their better saddles. Did you take the tapaderos off?
GUEST:
No the tapaderos came with it.
APPRAISER:
Okay. Those stirrups would go under these tapaderos and be laced on.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
Now, the silver. The piece of silver with the longhorn on it...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
...I feel pretty strongly that that was made by Schaezlein. Schaezlein started in business in California minting gold coins. After that was all over, and they went out of the coin business, they went into the silver business, and they went into the Western silver business in particular. And that really has the look of one of their longhorn heads. They are still in business in San Francisco.
GUEST:
Really? That's amazing.
APPRAISER:
Believe it or not. And most of this silver looks like Schaezlein, but not all of it. The buckle looks like it's been replaced.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
It's from Edward Bohlin in Hollywood. So somebody was using this saddle in the '20s and the '30s and the '40s...
GUEST:
In the Westerns.
APPRAISER:
...and broke their rope holder off...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
APPRAISER:
...and had a new buckle put on it, because that is a Bohlin buckle, and it is really worn. And the tooling shows a lot of wear. Not bad wear, just regular wear.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
What did you pay for this saddle?
GUEST:
I paid $1,000 for it back in the early '70s.
APPRAISER:
Yeah. The saddle's in good condition. If this came up at auction, $25,000 to $30,000?
GUEST:
Wow. (laughs) That's quite a good investment I made then, back in the '70s.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, you did okay.
GUEST:
$25,000 to $30,000. That's awesome.
APPRAISER:
And you got to enjoy it.
GUEST:
Oh, absolutely.
APPRAISER:
I mean, you know, it's a great thing.
GUEST:
Yeah. It's a beautiful thing.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, it is.
GUEST:
Yeah.
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