Visalia Stock Saddle Co. Special catalogue No. 24.

San Francisco, CA: Visalia Stock Saddle Co., 2117-2123 Market St., [1928]. 4to. 7 x 8 in. 64 pp., printed in sepia and black & white. With 100s of text illusts, some photo illustrations, some diagrams. Tan coloured softcovers, cover art of fine Walker saddle, and the Visalia Stock Co. “Extra Vine Angora Chaps” on back cover, stapled as issued (very minor creasing to left fore-edge, small closed tear at foot of spine), still a VG bright copy. First edition of this well-illustrated saddle and tack catalogue from one of the most important makers of western harness and saddlery in the West from the 19th through the 20th Centuries. Founded in 1869 in three Sonora, Mexico saddle makers, Ricardo Mattley, Juan Martarell, and Alsalio Herrera, which was then bought by David Walker in 1870 retaining the three talented craftsman for over 20 years as he built the brand. Edmund Walker Weeks (d. 1930) Walker’s nephew took over the company in 1887, moved the company to San Francisco in 1890, where it survived the 1906 Earthquake & Fire, and continued to produce some of the finest saddles ever made. This excellent catalogue illustrates the offerings of the famed firm of western gear and horse equipment to the ranching interests and working cowboys, and celebrities just prior to World War II. The catalogue includes Stock Saddles -- many of them elaborately tooled, some unadorned working saddles, Mexican Stock Saddles, youth saddles, saddle stirrups, Justin boots, cinch riggings, conchas, an extended section on Stetson’s hats, and many styles of leather and angora chaps, and “Armitas.” No copies in Worldcat.