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Identifying Antique Saddles

Antique saddles are a big business. According to Squidoo, most dealers agree that an antique is anything that is 100 or more years old. Saddles date back much farther than that, but in the United States, those in highest demand seem to be from the 19th century. This was the heyday of the cowboy, and the only thing more important to a cowboy than his horse was his saddle.

Instructions

- 1
  Find the saddle maker&'s name on the saddle. This is not always possible, but it&'s the best place to start when trying to determine if an old saddle is a valuable antique. Some popular saddlers from the 19th century included the Collins Brothers, E.C. Lee, R.T. Frazier and Fred Mueller.
- 2
  Study the saddle&'s shape. Saddles from this era were typically high in the front and back. They were built for comfort and function before beauty, as a cowboy spent sunup to sundown in the saddle.
- 3
  Study the tooling or lack thereof. Tooling is to a saddle what a vanity plate is to a car and did not become popular until more recently in the saddle&'s history. Some saddle makers did tool their leather, but a saddle with a conspicuous lack of tooling is likely antique.
- 4
  Look at the stirrups and fenders. In modern saddles, the leather is hidden beneath the fender. In early models, the leather is the strap that overlays the fender and holds the stirrup in place. Also, the stirrups in old saddles usually are made of iron, explaining why stirrups originally were termed "irons."
- 5
  Identify the materials. Any saddle made with synthetics is not antique. Saddles from the 19th century are constructed of wood and leather with some metal parts, such as riggings and conchos.

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