{"id":16709,"date":"2017-03-20T22:09:19","date_gmt":"2017-03-21T04:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=16709"},"modified":"2017-03-20T22:09:19","modified_gmt":"2017-03-21T04:09:19","slug":"book-chronicles-montana-saddleries-and-much-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/03\/book-chronicles-montana-saddleries-and-much-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Book chronicles Montana saddleries\u2014and much more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div id=\"slides-16709\" class=\"navis-slideshow\">\n\t\t\t<p class=\"slide-nav\">\n\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"prev\"><\/a>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"#\" class=\"next\"><\/a>\n\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t<div class=\"slides_container\"><div id=\"16709-slide1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Lyndes-2-5682.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Lyndes-2-5682-771x514.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Ed Kemmick\/Last Best News <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>Jay C. Lyndes stands between a couple of saddles and a pair of chaps from his extensive collection of cowboy artifacts. He and two associates produced the recently published \"Saddleries of Montana.\" The saddle on the right, made by Al Furstnow, was given in 1914 to the winner of the Miles City Rodeo. Click on the arrow at top right for more photos.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"16709-slide2\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Hart-Sadedle2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Hart-Sadedle2-771x514.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Bobby R. Reynolds <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>The Miles City Saddlery made this beautiful saddle, studded with custom silver ornaments, for the silent-movie star William S. Hart.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"16709-slide3\" data-src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Hartmark-771x514.jpg*771*514\" data-href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Hartmark.jpg\" \/><h6>Bobby R. Reynolds <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>The saddle made for William S. Hart included the movie star's name on the silver cantle plate.<\/p><\/div><div id=\"16709-slide4\"><a href=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chaps.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chaps-771x514.jpg\" \/><\/a><h6>Bobby R. Reynolds <a href=\"#\" class=\"slide-permalink\">permalink<\/a><\/h6><p>The book also includes a wide selection of leather chaps, including these five \"card suit\" chaps produced by the Miles City Saddlery.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><script>jQuery( document ).ready( function() { loadSlideshow( 16709, 'https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2017\/03\/book-chronicles-montana-saddleries-and-much-more\/', 4 ) } );<\/script>\n<p>Thirty-some years ago, Jay C. Lyndes received an unusual package in the mail.<\/p>\n<p>The package, with a return address from the Lame Deer Trading Post, was literally oozing with black, oily gunk. Lyndes wondered whether he should even open it. But he\u2019d done some business with the trading post before, and curiosity prevailed.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Inside was a pair of leather chaps, coal-black and dripping with used motor oil. Then Lyndes noticed that the chaps bore the stamp of \u201cAl. Furstnow,\u201d of Miles City, one of the most famous saddle makers in the history of Montana.<\/p>\n<p>By \u201cpure luck,\u201d he said, he next decided to look at the inside of the belt attached to the chaps. After cleaning away oil and grime he saw, roughly carved into the leather, the name \u201cCurley\u201d and the year \u201c1915.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He called the Lame Deer Trading Post and was informed that \u201cone of the Curley boys\u201d had sold the chaps for gas money to get to a rodeo. The \u201cCurley boys\u201d were grandchildren of the Crow Indian scout Curley, who had served with Lt. Col. George A. Custer, survived the Battle of the Little Bighorn and died in 1923.<\/p>\n<p>The chaps are rather plain, compared with some of magnificent specimens in Lyndes\u2019 collection, but that pair remains one of the more interesting pieces in his possession.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"addboard alignleft wp-image-16719 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/cover.png\" alt=\"addboard\" width=\"336\" height=\"418\" \/><\/a>The story of Curley\u2019s chaps also helps explain why Lyndes\u2019 new book, \u201cSaddleries of Montana: Montana Makers from Territorial Times to 1940,\u201d will be of interest not just to collectors or specialists, but to anyone who cares about the history of Montana.<\/p>\n<p>The book is full of anecdotes and observations, snippets of Montana history and word portraits of Montana characters. Most of those stories are told in the captions that accompany more than 500 color photos\u2014photos so vivid and detailed that you can almost smell the leather.<\/p>\n<p>A caption on a photo of another pair of Furstnow chaps, these covered with white wool, reads in part: \u201cWooly chaps did not survive well because about everything in the barn either ate them, made nests in them, and\/or chewed on them (their worst enemy was probably the grandma who disliked the odor and burnt them up in the stove).\u201d<\/p>\n<p>You can feel Lyndes\u2019 excitement in his description of a holster created by a saddlemaker name C. Racek, whose shop was in Billings. Leather collectibles rarely survive in good shape, but this one, made before 1889, was still in mint condition.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow it survived is a miracle,\u201d the caption says, \u201cbut it is what collectors dream of finding.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lyndes, a native of Hysham who has lived in Billings for many years, said a major motivation for publishing the book was to educate people on how to tell genuine saddlery\u00a0artifacts from modern fakes. It\u2019s easier in the case of items created, say, by some of the widely known saddlemakers in Miles City because so much of their handiwork survives and their maker\u2019s marks\u2014like Furstnow\u2019s stamp on Curley\u2019s chaps\u2014are so recognizable.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"well\"><div class=\"dfad dfad_pos_1 dfad_first\" id=\"_ad_652\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/goo.gl\/mjhWkW\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/201703_capeair_variable.jpg\" alt=\"CapreAir_Variable\" width=\"510\" height=\"180\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18069\" \/><\/a><\/div><\/div>But many of the nearly 200 saddleries mentioned in the book produced limited numbers of goods, and little to nothing remains of their work, making it easier to pass off fake items stamped with a fraudulent maker\u2019s mark.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the artifacts, photographs and documents featured in the book are owned by Lyndes, who for many years had made himself available to other collectors who wanted him to authenticate a saddle or some other item. Starting maybe 10 years ago, he said, friends of his began telling him that it might be easier to put all his experience in a book, to make his encyclopedic knowledge more accessible.<\/p>\n<p>He began working on the book about three years ago, enlisting the aid of his longtime associate, Bobby Reynolds, who took all the photographs and who did a considerable amount of internet research, and E. Helene Sage, a horse enthusiast, collector of Western antiques and the author of more than 350 scientific articles, reviews, Western-related commentaries, auction catalogs and books.<\/p>\n<p>Sage did most of the research and wrote most of the text, while Lyndes wrote almost all the captions, based on his knowledge of his own collection. Lyndes said he didn\u2019t see the book as a way to enlarge either his ego or his pocketbook.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs for a money-making venture, you can forget it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a niche market, definitely, but it would shock you how many collectors there are.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_16715\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"addboard wp-image-16715 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/Eyck-mark.jpg\" alt=\"Mary\" width=\"336\" height=\"177\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Bobby R. Reynolds<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Saddlemakers, like this one from Billings, always stamped their work with their maker&#8217;s mark.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Lyndes, 66, said he\u2019s been collecting since he was 6 years old, when he started amassing baseball cards. Years later, he traded his entire card collection for another kid\u2019s stamp collection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI still have the stamp collection,\u201d he said. \u201cI wish I had the baseball cards.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Lyndes\u2019 grandparents owned a soda fountain in Hysham and his father ran the Rural Electric Association co-op there. Whenever the family went anywhere, Lyndes said, his father made a point of stopping at local museums, fostering a sense of history in his son.<\/p>\n<p>Lyndes worked as a chemical engineer for many years, then on the permitting of gold and coal mines. He also owned an oxygen business for 20 years and got into real estate and ranching.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI kind of collected through all of it,\u201d he said, and now he spends most of his time adding to his collection, together with the organizational tasks and research involved in maintaining it.<\/p>\n<p>He has office space on the West End of Billings, where he houses a breathtaking collection of what he calls \u201ccowboy antiques\u201d\u2014silver spurs, saddles and saddlery items, chaps, holsters and cartridge belts, horsehair bridles, silver bits, photographs, books, documents, advertising materials and art.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Saddleries of Montana,&#8221; issued recently by Schiffer Publishing in Pennsylvania, is a large, elegantly bound volume with glossy, heavy-stock pages. It examines the saddleries of Montana region by region, each grouped around a city\u2014Miles City, Billings, Lewistown, Great Falls, Helena, Butte\/Deer Lodge, Bozeman and Missoula.<\/p>\n<p>It was as comprehensive as they could make it, Lyndes said, but he knows there are saddlemakers they haven\u2019t found yet, and artifacts and documents that will still come to light.<\/p>\n<p>He said most of the best collectibles come from out of state, mostly because the pieces that stayed in Montana were used until they fell apart. One of Lyndes\u2019 favorite saddles, the one pictured on the front of the book, sat untouched in a house in New York for 100 years.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_16716\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignright\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"addboard wp-image-16716 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/holster.jpg\" alt=\"Holster\" width=\"336\" height=\"327\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Bobby R. Reynolds<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Another Miles City Saddlery piece, a single-action holster.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It was made by the Moran Bros. in Miles City in 1886 and features a silver concho, or decorative disc, black angora serapes\u2014ornate trappings behind the saddle\u2014and tapaderos, which covered the stirrups and protected the rider\u2019s feet from brush and, in Texas, mesquite.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has,\u201d the caption reads, \u201cthe finest tooling money could buy at the time and it is a true work of art.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But that\u2019s not all. Charles M. Russell made a drawing in Miles City in 1886 of a cowboy standing beside a horse wearing a saddle remarkably similar to the one on the book cover. Lyndes can\u2019t prove it is the actual saddle Russell drew, but the same man who sold Lyndes\u00a0the saddle sold him a bit, bridle and spurs whose conchos match the concho on the saddle, and they match the bit, bridle and spurs in the Russell drawing.<\/p>\n<p>Lyndes, who also owns the Russell sketch, which he has hanging over the saddle, said it must surely be the saddle Russell drew.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think there were two of those saddles in 1886 in Montana,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was just too good and too expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In addition to dozens of photographs of saddles and chaps, the book is illustrated with photos of hundreds of rare documents, including sales receipts, newspaper advertisements, envelopes, business cards, letters and saddlemakers\u2019 catalogs.<\/p>\n<p>And because saddleries also made all sorts of things needed by cowboys, miners, ranchers and loggers, the book features a good many other leather artifacts, including leather cuffs, collars, saddle bags, holsters, satchels, belts, scabbards, spur straps, binocular cases, dice cups and even a leather cribbage board bearing the name of a Miles City tavern\u2014Bullard Block Bar.<\/p>\n<p>Lyndes doesn\u2019t have any long-term plans for his collection, though both his sons have caught the collecting bug themselves and seem destined to carry on his legacy. For Lyndes, it\u2019s not the trophy mount that matters, it\u2019s the hunt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t slow down,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve got 40 more years of stuff I need to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thirty-some years ago, Jay C. Lyndes received an unusual package in the mail. The package, with a return address from the Lame Deer Trading Post, was literally oozing with black, oily gunk. Lyndes wondered whether he should even open it. But he\u2019d done some business with the trading post before, and curiosity prevailed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[5650,5648,2694,5649,5647,5646,5651],"class_list":["post-16709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-diversions","category-montana","tag-al-furstnow","tag-bobby-r-reynolds","tag-charles-m-russell","tag-e-helene-sage","tag-jay-c-lyndes","tag-saddleries-of-montana","tag-william-s-hart","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16709"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16728,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16709\/revisions\/16728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}