Center Fire Man on a Bronc

Additional Information

Provenance:
Frederic G. and Ginger K. Renner, Scottsdale, Arizona
The Russell, Great Falls, MT, 2012

Exhibitions:
Charles M. Russell: The Frederic G. Renner Collection, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ; C.M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, MT; Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; 1981.

Literature:
Recreation, “Recreation Men IV—C.M. Russell, the Cowboy Artist,” Edward Cave, July 1917: p. 13, line engraving.

When the Library of Congress started diligently cataloging Western material in the 20th century, it needed a glossary of terms to help researchers with some of the cowboy vernacular. Words and phrases included in the glossary were “ditty bag” (a pouch for personal items in the bunkhouse), “leppy” (an orphaned calf) and “wrango” (a ranch hand charged with caring for the horses).

Another term that the Library of Congress catalogued was “center-fire saddle,” which might give some insight into this Russell watercolor: “[A center-fire saddle] is saddle with a single cinch rigged at the midpoint between the fork and the cantle. The cinch on 18th-century Mexican saddles hung directly below the saddle forks but the design changed as it moved north. In his book Trail Dust and Saddle Leather, writer Jo Mora reports that vaqueros in Spanish California ‘moved the cinch ring back and hung it at the middle of the [saddle] tree, but still held to one cinch only. This was called the California or center-fire style. Then, a little later, they commenced certain variations in the exact hang of this single cinch, moving it forward a trifle. So now we have the center fire, the 5/8, the 3/4 and the 7/8 rig.’ Mora contrasts the center-fire design with the two-cinch rig favored by cowboys who tie ropes to the saddle horn: ‘For the hard and fast roper the double rig is the only thing; and the single cinch for the dally man.’”

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