Antiques & Collecting
Collecting conchos and Spanish ornamentation
By WILLIAM C. REYNOLDS
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Photos courtesy William C. Reynolds
Contemporary 2-inch sterling silver and 14-kt bridle concho with rubies celebrating a significant lightning storm in Nevada's Ruby Mountains, from Old Cowdogs Western Silver
A friend of mine who collects every concho he can get his hands on considers the practice similar to picking up every sand dollar you see at the beach. While sand dollar collections don't increase in value, the value of many conchos has grown exponentially of late.
Saddle silver and conchos, originally called Spanish Ornamentation, are a relatively recent aspect of saddlery. Conchos themselves were initially designed to dress up saddles. The great Western painter and storyteller Charles M. Russell summed up the effect of shiny saddle silver in his story of the cowpuncher in his book Trails Plowed Under. Telling of the sighting of an early Californio riding a center-fire rigged, fully stamped saddle with 28-inch tapaderos and silver on his pistol handles and saddle, Russell wrote, "When the sun hits him with all his silver on, he blazes up like some big piece of jewelry. You can see him for miles when he's ridin' the high country."
And that, of course, was the point. Saddle silver and saddle conchos are by their nature a tonal contrast to the earthy colors of saddle leather. The Spanish vaquero prided himself on the elaborate and individual look of his gear.
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Clockwise from top left: 1. A 1½-inch sterling silver bridle loop concho by Edward H. Bohlin Co., ca. early 1980s; unusal maker's mark struck on the dome. 2. A 2-inch hand-engraved concho by James Stegman from Comstock Heritage. The concho has been in the Comstock heritage line (fromerly Irving and Jachens) since 1914. 3. Mid-20th-century Mexican-made coin silver concho with no maker's mark.
While saddles, bits, and spurs have evolved, the process for creating conchos has changed little. Conchos were first made of coin silver, as coins were readily available in the United States and Mexico. Use of silver coins was particularly prevalent among Spanish and Native American craftsmen, especially the Navajo. Coins were either hammered and pierced or melted down into ingots, which were then flattened and cut into shapes. The 1873 Comstock silver strike in California and subsequent discovery of gold in the region added to the "metal fever" and the use of silver and gold.
The earliest conchos were insignia, such as the brass ornamentation found on early cavalry and military saddles of the mid-1800s. After the Civil War, riders heading west came into contact with vaquero horsemen coming from California and recognized the offshoots of those earlier cavalry saddle fittings on the vaquero saddles, as brass conchos and ornaments gave way to those crafted in silver.
After the Second World War, the move to modernize had a huge impact on the saddle-shop business as people wanted to forget the horse and buggy days of the past. But while a saddle and harness shop could not be supported as easily during the second half of the 1900s, the craftsmen and -women who came from that system continued their craft on an individual basis.
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Left: Classic four-petal poppy concho, ca. 1940s. The concho appeared in both Keyston Bros. and Edward H. Bohlin's catalogs of the era and was seen in various sizes on silver-mounted Bohlin parade saddles. Right: A 1½-inch domed sterling silver concho from Sunset Trails, ca. 1950s.
Today, many significant craftsmen and -women with ties back to the great shops of the past continue to work in the style and manner in which they were trained or which inspired them. With these individuals continuing the tradition of the great saddle and silver styles of the past, new work and old are equally collectable.
Many great saddle and silver shops such as Visalia, Hamleys, Heiser, Bohlin, Schaezlein, Irvine and Jachens, McCabe, Olsen-Nolte, Loomis, Sunset Trails, and Garcia — just to name a few — continue to make conchos and saddle silver today. Shops such as Visalia, Bohlin, and Hamleys have changed hands many times, while others such as Schaezlein, Sunset Trails, and Irvine and Jachens (now called Comstock Heritage) are still family-owned businesses. In addition, newer makers are enjoying success today in large part due to the increased international interest in the West as well as the renaissance of the bridle horse culture — a direct connection back in time with the romance of the vaquero.
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Courtesy the Traditional Cowboy Arts Association and National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
A pair of sterling silver conchos made for the 2006 TCAA Show at the National Cowboys & Western Heritage Museum, featuring a hand-engraved sunburst motif in Victorian-style engraving
While classic makers of saddle silver and conchos can command significant prices, many contemporary individual makers such as Mark Drain, Clint Orms, Scott Hardy, Rob Schaezlein, Victoria Adams, James Stegman, Ed Fields, Chuck Irwin, Ernie Marsh, Chuck "Iron Hand" Wilcox, and Mark Dahl, among others, are commanding prices equal to older "benchmark" makers. Many of these contemporary makers have taken the craft into new design territory, combining a reverence for tradition with new ideas and uses.
But no worries for classic concho collectors — the old stuff will continue to increase in value due to style originality, scarcity, and historical significance. The popularity of many contemporary makers' work proves the living, thriving essence of Western silver and its future and collectibility.
Issue: January 2009
