Dionisio Rodriguez, active in Mexico City at the... Lot 34

Dionisio Rodriguez, active in Mexico City at the end of the 19th century Pancho Villa saddle, c. 1900 in brown leather, called "silla de cantinas", on a wooden core, with saddlebags with flaps and quarters embellished with silver thread, silver-plated metal reinforcements and tassels. Decorated with interlacing and stylized foliage. Signed on a label on the cantle "Antigua Fusteria / Del callejon de la Higuera Letra A. / Dionsio Rodiguez / Mexico". Leather pommel covered with a fine drumhead, saucer-shaped pommel and cantle reinforced with silver-plated metal. Height 89 Long 64 Depth 33 cm. On a wooden stand. Attached: a pair of wood and leather stirrups. Height 13 Long 25 Depth 13 cm. Provenance: Patrick Picard collection (1951-2022), leather artist, Vendée; by descent. Dionisio Rodriguez, ca. 1900. A wood and leather saddle with silver ornaments said to have belonged to Pancho Villa. LA SELLE DITE DE PANCHO VILLA, by Nicolas Cléry A rare model by Dionisio Rodriguez This so-called "Mexican" saddle, with its wide pommel, is typical of Mexico and the southern United States. It was made by Dionisio Rodriguez, one of the few carpenter-manufacturers still in existence today. He represented Mexico at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889, with 19 pommels under number 2471. Diversifying his production, he was then listed as a manufacturer of shoe trees in the "Commercial Directory of the American Republics" in 1897-1899. The Lusher Collection in Austin, Texas, holds another of his saddles. Inspired by Arabian and Spanish saddles, the Mexican saddle was the prerogative of the "Charros", landowners and breeders of the second half of the 19th century who were not subject to an estate. Relatively heavy, they are designed to provide comfort for both horse and rider, and include space for weapons and tools such as rifles and machetes. Created from a wooden skeleton covered with strips of leather in different colors, which can be extended up to the stirrups to protect the rider from sand and brush, it is decorated with solid silver motifs. The complexity of this saddle's manufacturing process involves the joint work of different craftsmen: a carpenter for the skeleton, a saddler for the leathers and a goldsmith for the metal parts. Pancho Villa: hero of the Mexican Revolution Having seen very little use, this is a "gift" saddle, reputed, according to the tradition of its owner, which we have been unable to substantiate, to have belonged to Pancho Villa (1878-1923). Outlaw, then Major General and Governor of the State of Chihuahua, he was one of the most famous actors in the Mexican Revolution between 1910 and 1920. He was able to mint money to pay his troops, and to import horses, weapons and ammunition from the United States. Horses played an important role in his lightning raids, enabling him to move quickly through the steep terrain of northern Mexico. According to one of his contemporaries, whose anecdote is recounted by Friedrich Katz in "The Life and Times of Pancho Villa": "He is a remarkable horseman, sitting on his horse with the ease and grace of a cowboy, with straight strokes and the Mexican stiff-legged style, and using only a Mexican saddle. He loves his horse, he's very considerate of his comfort, probably due to the fact that they've often helped him escape from difficult situations so many times.". All the saddles known to have belonged to Pancho Villa follow the same typology as the charros. They consist of a wooden skeleton to which are attached strips of leather with pronounced polychrome reliefs and solid silver inlays, using a vocabulary linked to Mexican symbols such as the eagle and the snake, combined with more decorative interlacing and vegetation in silver or leather. The last saddle to belong to him was sold on January 28, 2012 in Arizona.