LOT High Noon Western Americana  /  High Noon Western Americana Auction  / 

204

Pancho Villa’s Silver Embroidered Saddle

Currency:USD Category:Antiques Start Price:50,000.00 USD Estimated At:150,000.00 - 250,000.00 USD
Pancho Villa’s Silver Embroidered Saddle
In remarkable condition, the classic Mexican style mochilla leather is smothered in silver-wrapped threads over leather stumpwork and boldly-domed silver conchos. Made and marked on decal, back of cantle, by expert craftsmen Joaquin Rodriguez and maker Fustero-Plazuela del San Pablo N 1, Mexico. Thematically it has 12 domed, silver, snake conchos with matching pair of snakes on horn and 3-dimensional snake head on matching saddlebags. Silver stirrups each have 2 silver roses with styled initials of Francisco (nickname: Pancho) Villa. Carved diablo under one saddlebag with wings (Alberto Tulan Cingo Marquez, the leather carver perhaps related it to the story that Pancho Villa buried a large golden hoard near a place called Devil’s Cave or perhaps it is linked to the belief of some that Pancho Villa had a pact with the devil). Back of the cantle has an additional 3-dimensional silver rope with roses to further embellish the regal design

Hollywood meets Pancho Villa
Years before Pancho Villa was assassinated in 1923, this magnificent saddle was created by renowned Mexican artisans. Initials on the stirrups confirm that it was given to Pancho Villa, honoring his real name of Francisco Villa. When Howard Hawks came down to Mexico to begin filming Viva Villa, Sra Maria Luz Corral de Villa (Villa’s only legal wife) presented the saddle to him, according to David Hawks, Howard’s son.
Hawks took it home after leaving the set as director and kept it in his California homes for many years from the 30s to the 50s. Included in the lot is a letter from Mr Hawks’ son David, who recounts playing “cowboy” on it when he was 5 or 6 years old (mid-1930s) as it sat on a wooden mock-up of a horse in the family room of their Benedict Canyon home until the 1940s, and later in their Moraga Dr home until the 1950s. Although the saddle was stolen from the house during a burglary, it was eventually recovered by the Police Department, and Hawks returned with it to Palm Springs in the mid 1980s.
In the 1990s Hawks’ heirs sold part of their estate, with the saddle going to Mr Chuck Ramsey of Laguna Beach, CA who subsequently lent the saddle to both the Witte Museum (San Antonio, TX) and Museum of South Texas History (Edinburg, TX) until 2009. From Mr Ramsey it comes to High Noon to be sold as a beautiful historical artifact.
High Noon wishes to thank Norm Moldenhauer for his generous contribution to the history of this saddle. Mr Moldenhauer has handled and/or sold many of the important Mexican saddles to have crossed the border since the 1950s.

Excerpt from Letter by Bruce Shackelford:

Leader of the Division del Norte, the Division of the North, Francisco Pancho Villa was the most famous of all revolutionary leaders who fought in the Mexican Revolution that started in 1910…Pancho Villa had married Maria Luz Corral in 1909. His longest known marriage lasted until 1920 when he and Luz parted. Pancho left for his hacienda and Luz stayed in Mexico City. Luz was with Pancho through the revolution and the worst of the fighting. When he left, Luz had much of his property and remained devoted to Villa after his death. Luz gave the magnificent saddle, covered with silver snakes, to the film producer Howard Hawks in 1931 after he was dismissed as Director on the film Viva Villa, starring Wallace Beery as Pancho Villa and Fay Wray as his lover. Several heavily worn saddles in Mexico are attributed to ownership by Pancho Villa, but this is the only saddle known that was made for Villa, as evidenced by his initials, FV repeated in silver on the saddle. This saddle is one of the finest examples of Mexican equestrian art to come from the revolutionary era. That along with its ownership by the most famous revolutionary, Francisco Pancho Villa, make it the most important saddle from the legendary period of Mexican history.
Bruce Shackelford

Bruce M Shackelford works as an independent consultant, researcher, and writer on projects dealing with the history of the trans-Mississippi American West and North American Indian art and culture. He is the former director of the Creek Indian Council House Museum, a National Historic Landmark in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Mr. Shackelford has served as curator for a number of exhibits for the Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas and the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio. Mr. Shackelford has also worked as a consultant for the Institute of Texan Cultures in San Antonio; the George Ranch Historical Park in Richmond, Texas; HEB Co. in San Antonio and The Buckhorn Saloon and Museum in San Antonio. Mr. Shackelford has published articles in Southwest Art Magazine, Conquistador, A Journal of Spanish Horses, and the book Black Cowboys of Texas. Mr. Shackelford's education includes a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a master of fine arts degree from the University of Oklahoma in Norman. Mr Shackelford appears frequently as an appraiser on the famed Antiques Roadshow.
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