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Iconic outlaw’s saddle goes up for auction in Mesa
MESA, Ariz. – If you’re looking for something with a little cachet within the antiques and arts field – look no further – what can be better than Pancho Villa’s last saddle?

It has been referred to as the “trifecta for saddles,” what with its beauty and historical significance. Not only is the infamous renegade and revolutionary hero Pancho Villa represented in the story; but, also the fiercely independent and visionary Hollywood director Howard Hawks plays a role in the provenance of the one-of-a-kind iconic saddle.

As a piece of art, it is nearly unsurpassed. Crafted with silver-wrapped threads and boldly-domed conchos, the red-oak leather parade saddle sports a three-dimensional silver snake head and a carved Diablo in the leather under the grand saddlebags. The stirrups are also embellished with the initials “FV,” for his more formal name, Francisco Villa.

Custom-crafted for Villa by celebrated carpenters and leather workers, much of the leather embroidery and silver-wrapping threads are considered a lost art.

And, then there’s Villa himself.

“Pancho Villa was both a charismatic hero and cruel outlaw,” says Linda Kohn Sherwood of High Noon Auctions, which will be auctioning off the saddle. “He survived countless battles and assassinations of three strong Mexican revolutionary leaders (Madero, Zapata and Carranza) and the stories of his life helped define the spirit of his country’s struggle for freedom.

“His place in history is a paradox: a revolutionary idealist who believed firmly in public education, health and good government, and a vicious, mean-spirited, cruel revolutionary who would do anything to win.”

Of course, it was a less genteel world in the Mexico of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And, a much more hostile environment.

The saddle will be sold at High Noon’s Western Americana auction in Mesa on Jan. 28. It is estimated to bring $150,000-250,000.

“We’re getting a few calls on the saddle, but word really hasn’t got out yet,” says Danny Verrier, director of High Noon’s Western Art and Native American department. “But, these guys – the serious collectors – play their cards pretty close to their vest. We’ve seen it all in the past 22 years. The sale never goes to the guy that says he’s going to buy it – that brags about taking it home. It’s always the guy hiding in the corner; the guy that bids with a raised eyebrow. That’s the serious buyer.”

It is unknown exactly when or how many years it took to construct the ornate parade saddle, according to Chuck Ramsey, owner of the saddle, on his 2010 website Pancho Villa Last Saddle (www.lastsaddle.com). It was thought to have been made in the 1920s.

Villa’s place in history is somewhat shadowy. For some, he remains a true revolutionary hero. In the vein of a Robin Hood, he was attributed with breaking up vast land holdings of the rich and powerful, and parceling them out to the widows and orphans of his fallen soldiers.

For others, he was seen as a ruthless murderer.

Villa is said to have financed his army by stealing from the endless cattle herds of rich landowners in northern Mexico and selling beef north of the border, where he found no end of U.S. merchants willing to sell him guns and ammunition.

Ultimately, Villa would find himself on the wrong side of U.S. foreign policy. When the U.S. turned to supporting one of his opponents for the Mexican presidency, Villa retaliated by raiding U.S border towns. From there, on the U.S. side of the border, Villa’s image plummeted while many in Mexico saw Villa as an avenger of decades of yanqui oppression.

In the end, Villa’s faction lost the Revolution. After two U.S. Army “punitive expeditions” into Mexico in 1916 and 1919 failed to route Villa, the Mexican government accepted his surrender in 1920 and retired him on a general’s salary. In 1923, he was assassinated while driving a 1919 Dodge roadster after conducting a routine bank transaction.

In 1931, one of Villa’s widows (which has been recorded anywhere from 8 to 26, depending on the source) gave the saddle to Howard Hawks, the famed movie director on the set of the movie Viva Villa. Although Hawks never completed the movie, released in 1934, it remained in his California home until 1954.

In 1954, while Hawks was filming other movies throughout Europe and Africa, the saddle came up missing. Hawks, after returning to the U.S. in 1957, began searching for the saddle.

In July 1976, Hawk discovered information about the saddle being up for sale. He filed a theft report with the Palm Springs Police Department and the saddle was seized by authorities. Hawks died that year in December, but after a court settlement in 1982, the saddle was returned to the Hawks estate.

In 1990, Ramsey – from Trails West Gallery in Laguna Beach, Calif. – bought the saddle. It has since been displayed at the Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas and the South Texas History Museum in Edinburg.

The saddle will be one of more than 300 lots sold at the High Noon Western Americana Auction on Jan. 28. The weekend will also complement a two-day High Noon Western Americana Antique Show, featuring more than 100 vendors of historic and contemporary Western Americana, in the Mesa Convention Center Exhibit halls.

Contact: (310) 202-9010.

www.highnoon.com

Eric C. Rodenberg

10/20/2011
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