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19TH CENTURY BUFFALO HORN WALL MOUNT
ORIGINAL SET IN VERY GOOD CONDITION: One of the
most collectible surviving relics of the commercial buffalo
hunts on the western plains, these 19TH
Century Buffalo Horn mounts were very popular decorator
pieces during the Victorian Age, and are now actively
sought by modern collectors. Made into furniture such
as chairs, footstools, and tables, used as the hangers
on small wall mounted hat racks up to large elaborate
hall trees, and fashioned into all sorts of table sized
pieces such as pin cushions, desk sets, clocks,
ashtrays, and pen and ink sets, the range of artifacts
fashioned from the horns and hooves of the millions of
buffalo taken during that short period was only limited
by the imagination of the craftsmen and their
customers. Despite the brisk trade in these horn items
during the last quarter of the 19TH Century,
they are far from common on the collector market today.
With cow horn pieces making up the vast majority of horn
artifacts found in the modern market, items made from
buffalo horn are seldom encountered.
This set is made from a matched pair of large horns -
from the size and shape, probably from a bull and each
horn measures 4 across the base and 13 ½ long measured
along the outside curve, and the set measures a very
impressive 20 ½ long at its widest point.
The horns are mounted on a solid central cylindrical
shaped block which is covered with the original black or
dark brown nappy chenille material. The material is
solid without any tears or holes, but the surface of the
material on one side has lost some of its nap
commensurate with the sort of age most of these
Victorian era pieces show. The horns are well attached
to the center block and are in no danger of separating,
but there is a minor amount of wiggle where the center
block likely wood has shrunk with age. This set
was likely a wall hanging, perhaps a trophy of a
particularly large bull taken by a hunter while the
buffalo herds were still ranging the west.
Fresh from a very old collection, this set of Buffalo
Horns has not seen the light of day for many decades and
it is the sort of buffalo horn furnishings that just
dont appear on the market very often.
SOLD
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