Western Saddle Wall Art Piece (using a real saddle)

Okay I have had this for around 10 years. I got it when my dad bought a house and the original owner couldn't retrieve it so he just left it. It was hanging about 20' up so it was a pain to get down which is why he left it. My dad didn't want it and asked if I wanted it since I am the horse fanatic of the family.

Of course I sent my husband up a ladder to retrieve it.

I haven't really seen anything like it but I am pretty sure I found it's other half at a high end steakhouse here in Austin. It was almost the exact same frame and backing but it was landscape instead of portrait.

It was also hanging really high but I am 99% sure it was the other half of this saddle. I am almost positive it was made locally. Seems to make sense that the other half ended up in a local steakhouse.

I have looked online and seen a similar idea but it was just a picture with no real info and the saddle itself was smaller and looked kind of fake. This thing is huge. it weighs as much as you would expect it to. So yeah it is heavy. The frame measures 36" x 30.5"

The stirrup has a R with a circle around it but there really aren't any markings on it. I think it is an interesting piece and I am sure I could sell it.

Would love to get some thoughts on it. I think it is kind of a unique piece. I don't really have the room for it in my current house and am considering adding it to one of my online auctions. I could see it going in a bar or something.

 

Why not go to the bar that possibly has the other half. They could hang them on opposing walls. Keep Austin Weird

 

Texas chainsaw saddle massacre !!!!

 

LOL! Yeah, I guess I could do that. Austin isn't that weird anymore it is more hipster and yuppie now. ;-) It's a tragedy what has happened here really. At least for those of us that remember what it was like.

I haven't ventured in that restaurant in awhile I am not sure if they still have the other half or not. I may have to swing by there if nothing else maybe someone could tell me where they got it.

 

I just spit my drink out, reading that. LOL!

 

Fill er up....& take another look !!!!

 

No...seriously...don't !!

 

They filmed that in my back yard. No really they did. Ok well almost. They recently moved the original house down south and made a bed and breakfast out of it. I could take you to just about every location for every scene in that movie.

 

Granted most of it is neighborhoods now.

 

Of course it has lost any value as a saddle. At this point, it is a decorator item. I kind of see this stuff as passe' these days but maybe I am wrong. I am sure someone will love it and it seems like a good auction item to me. Being in Texas should be a good fit for it.

 

That's exactly what I was thinking.

 

You drive down the road where the 18 wheeler smacks leatherface ???

 

"Of course it has lost any value as a saddle."
no, there may still come up a film of the chain massacre series - vol. 23 - "The one-legged cowboy chasing the Great White Buffalo" featuring Ted Nugent as Jeb Bush...

 

Funny you should say that.....they're talking about a leatherface prequel !!!

 

LOL! Yes it was actually his brother that got smashed by the 18 wheeler but if you mean the road in the last scene where leatherface does his little chainsaw dance. I have been down it many many times. Although it looks a lot different now. As I mention it is surrounded by neighborhoods and will probably be a toll road soon. LOL!

The gas station in the film is actually a local post office here. I have dropped mail there many times and it is still as creepy as it was in the movie.

The Slaughter House they pass and where they pick up the hitch hiker in the beginning. That is the Taylor Meat Market and they have like the best, most fresh meat you can buy anywhere. We get gift certificates to Taylor Meat Market for Christmas every year from my husbands parents and we always look forward to going there. I believe it also had an appearance in one of the most recent versions of the movie.

As I mention they relocated the house, it is in Bastrop now which is South of Austin but it used to be in North Austin. It was a big deal when they moved it.

I can do you one even better than that though as far as movie locations.

I used to live less than a mile from "The Best Little Whore House In Texas" I drove past it everyday. It is really rundown now but they are working on fixing it back up or so I heard. My husbands family was real good friends with the lady that owned it. She passed away a few years back. The road that Burt Reynolds is driving down in several scenes in that movie was the road to my house. I don't live there anymore but I did see it every day. It looks the same as it did in the film out that way.

Of course I also visit almost daily many locations from Dazed & Confused, and well basically any Linklater film. Slacker, Boyhood... LOL!

And What's Eating Gilbert Grape. If you ever want to visit the Burger Barn just let me know. They brought that in for the movie and then after filming moved it to Granger, Texas where it operates as... you guessed it... "The Burger Barn" LOL!

The grocery store that Gilbert worked at in the movie is actually a gas station and I used to stop there everyday to get drinks. It's in a town named Manor that's pronounced mainor not manor. I could go on like this forever so I am just going to stop now but yeah.

We are just our own little Hollywood out here in Central Texas. LOL!

 

Oh, Gosh. No! LOL!

 

I remember hearing that too. It will never end.

I always found it funny that they chose Texas to do this type of film considering the idea for Leatherface was formed from Ed Gein who was from Wisconsin... I think. I mean I know they ventured pretty far from the real story but still. I guess Texas Chainsaw just sounds scarier than Wisconsin Chainsaw. I was way off base there I mean it was very lightly based on that incident.

Although I was watching a documentary here recently about the true stories behind urban legends and I was amazed how many times Texas came up. It seemed like every bad urban legend you ever heard got it's start from some really horrible crime that took place in Texas. Like the Halloween apple razor blade story or the night stalker at lover's lane story. Both of those stories got their start from actual crimes that took place in my home state.

Gives me the heebie Jeebies. I mean I know there are some nut cases here but most of them seem pretty harmless. In my mind all the bad serial killer types come from up North.

 

You're right, it's been a long time since I watched that film !

Oh....& gotta luv Bert !!!

With all those sights around you , it have been hard to sleep at night !!

 

This is the type of thing that chain restaurant decorators are snapping up. I always feel like the antique toys and gee-gaws are going to fall in my dinner.

 

There's a sports bar nearby , with a small plane wired to the ceiling.....you don't even notice it.....until you ' notice ' it......then you start to think if where you're sitting is where you really want to be sitting !!!