holster cartouches......when did they appear?

[Uncle Stinky]

When did the cartouches we see on frontier gun leather and other gear appear on the seen? I'm going to guess it was post Slim Jim days but cannot back that up. Were a majority of the cartridge era holsters made with a maker mark or cartouche? I've noticed some are very small and others are "in your face" advertising for the product's maker. An idea has been floated that only the finest of a saddleries production was maker marked and the majority was not. I've not heard that hypothesis before.

Any info. would be appreciated.

Regards ladies and gentlemen!

Stinky

[ChuckBurrows]

Main and Winchester were touch marking their California holsters as far back as the 1840's so yes Slim Jims were marked (actually SLim Jims never totally went out of fashion - they were still being made by some into the late 1880's at least). Overall cartouches on leather work of all types go much farther back - at least to the Middle Ages.

Most unmarked goods were the commercial types such as sold by Sears and Montgomery Wards, but not big the big commercial makers like the later Heiser shop which were always marked. While some smaller shops did not mark their goods, most makers did so IMO most were marked and not just the higher end makers - my observations are based not only on books, period catalogs, phots, and other period media sources but also examination of several thousand pieces of originals in museums and private collections.

[Buck Stinson]

For nearly 50 years, I've collected vintage gun leather and other cowboy gear as well as many other pieces of western memorabilia.  I've made a career out of studying the old saddle makers, their shops and the methods they used in making the goods they sold.  Over the years, I've probably owned over 300 maker marked holsters and cartridge belts, many of which are reproduced on our web site.  Most of my collection consists of items from the California Gold Rush period (1848) to around 1880, but I also have many items that were made up into the 1920's.   I have found that most of the saddle makers marked their items, even the small obscure shops in out of the way places.  Most people never see much of the 'small shop" pieces, because they didn't produce in large numbers.  You mentioned that someone had proposed the idea that saddle makers only marked their best items, but this is not at all true.  There were two distinct reasons a saddle maker marked his gear.  First, it was a form of advertizing and second, he was an artist and artists sign their work.   Collectors have always collected vintage leather gear, because of the way it looks.  Not just the tooling or carving, but the way the item was put together and finished.  The quality of the stitching, the finishing of the edges, the cut of the curves and the design of the holster are all things collectors look for.  Cowboys and ranchers looked at those features also.  They were an extremely vain bunch and spent most of their wages on their gear.  They may look like hell on the trail, but when they hit a night on the town, they were dressed to the nines.  The idea that a cowboy couldn't afford a high end gun rig or saddle, simply wasn't true.  These are the boys that kept those saddle makers busy.  When Frank Meanea took over E. L. Gallatins shop in 1880, he sold fancy flower carver double loop holsters with buckskin lining for $2.00.  By 1910, that same holster was $2.50.  I have many original saddle shop catalogs and advertizing cards dating back to 1878.  One of these catalogs is an original Main & Winchester, dated 1894.  It is a large catalog, complete with the original price guide.  In 1894, you could buy one dozen hand carved Slim Jim holsters for $12.00.  The same style holster is one from my collection and pictured on page 79 in Packing Iron.

[Chance]

  You mentioned that someone had proposed the idea that saddle makers only marked their best items, but this is not at all true.
 

Buck, I bow to your superior knowledge on this subject but your friend Boot in the UK - it was he who proposed the above idea - is gonna take some convincing!

Chance

[Bob R.]

Buck is quite right, and the tradition of makers marking saddles (and pretty much any other guild produced material object) is Medieval, and goes forward from that point in Europe. Our Ancestors brought the tradition to America with them, although the eschewed 'craft guilds', makers tended to mark their product.