Fine Art of the West

Rating:
Summary: COWBOYS WERE A "SHOWY LOT"
Review:
Those who may not think fine art and the West are compatible are in for quite a surprise when they open "Fine Art of the West" by the Director of the Charles M. Russell Center for the Study of Art of the American West, B. Byron Price.

Some 270 illustrations attest to the beauty of the work created by craftsman, often basing their designs upon those of Spanish and Mexican artisans. Many of the items included in this volume were, of course, utilitarian, such as saddles, boots, spurs, chaps. Yet they are distinctive in artistry and design, as cowboys used these them to decorate themselves and their horses.

We find quoted Owen Wister's description of a cowpuncher: "...he wore his careful finery, and from his wide hat-brim to his jingling heels made something of a figure - as self-conscious and deliberate a show as any painted buck in council or bull-elk among his aspiring cows; and out of town in the mountains, as wild and lean and dangerous as buck or bull knows how to be." They were, indeed, a showy lot and festooned themselves accordingly.

Chapter headings include:
1. Stock Saddles and Gun Leather
2. Trophy, Parade, and Presentation Saddles
3. Artistry With Hide and Hair
5. Boots and Hats

In the third chapter we discover leather gloves with gauntlets and red stars sewn to the cuffs, as well as short leather gauntlets with beaded cuffs, hands, and fingers. The epitome of chaps were those covered with hair, often dyed to colorful hues.

Those who consider men and women of the old West to have been rather nondescript will have to reverse their opinion as readers find bridles fashioned of dyed horsehair, as colorful as a wide sky rainbow.

Historians, scholars, and those with an interest in our country's Western history will find much to enjoy in "Fine Art of the West."

- Gail Cooke