The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 97, July 1993 - April, 1994 Page: 163
754 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
fore arriving in the New World on the boots of Spanish conquistadores. It was this
Spanish spur, the espuela grande, that found its way north of the Rio Grande to
become an important part of the material folk culture of the American cowboy.
A small but sturdy body of literature documents, directly and indirectly, the
practical and social significance of cowboy spurs. Now Jane Pattie has filled an
important void by researching and presenting for the first time the histories and
techniques of some folk artisans who actually crafted spurs in Texas and the
Southwest. After brief introductory sections lay the historical and technical
groundwork, Pattie introduces the reader to thirteen nineteenth- and twentieth-
century spurmakers, ranging from hometown blacksmiths like Jess Hodges of
Fort McKavett, Texas, to the Northeastern industrial manufacturing firms of Au-
gust Buermann and North & Judd. The thirteen essays are based on an impres-
sive reading of secondary literature, extensive work in libraries and archives, and
the author's own correspondence and oral history collection. Eighty-four black-
and-white photographs and twelve color plates accent the techniques, motifs,
and variants of these American spurmakers. An appendix sketches the work of
scores of additional spurmakers whose stories remain untold.
There are some minor problems with Cowboy Spurs and Their Makers. The in-
clusion of two industrial firms which cast and mass-produced their spurs disqual-
ifies this work as a pure study of American folk art. The Hispanicization thesis
will draw fire from those who know that Anglo, Celtic, and French (Acadian)
herders on both sides of the Atlantic spurred their mounts long before their de-
scendants migrated to Texas. And this volume's purchase price of $39.95 seems
a bit hefty at first glance.
Yet professional historians and art historians, folklorists, and laymen will pore
over the pages of this beautiful, meticulously documented book. Jane Pattie's ac-
complishment is impressive. At a time when hand-crafted spurs have been re-
placed by mass-produced junk or, at best, products made with stainless steel and
an acetylene torch, Pattie has left us a thorough record of the real thing. 'The
spurs used by cowboys in Texas and elsewhere," she writes, "were more than
tools of their trade. They were works of art--skillfully made items that showed
the craftsmanship of their makers as well as their wearers' skill and sense of pro-
fessionalism" (p. 11).
University of Washington Tacoma Campus MICHAEL ALLEN
O'Neil Ford, Architect. By Mary Carolyn Hollers George. (College Station: Texas
A&M University Press, 1992. Pp. xii+273. Illustrations, foreword, acknowl-
edgments, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. $60.oo.)
O'Neil Ford (1905-1982) was one of Texas's preeminent twentieth-century
architects. He was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National
Council on the Arts, and he and his associates designed acclaimed buildings in
this state and beyond, among them the Texas Instruments Semiconductor Build-
ing in Dallas and the campuses of the University of Texas at San Antonio, Skid-
more College in New York, and Trinity University in San Antonio. Wherever he163
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 97, July 1993 - April, 1994, periodical, 1994; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117154/m1/191/?rotate=90: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.