Turnerriver has an excellent monograph about the Colorado Saddlery Company in the Expert Commentary section. Here's some additional info which Crazyphil inspired me to gather whilst working on The Book:
Incredibly, there were two Colorado Saddlery Companies, both in Denver and apparently unrelated (bear in mind that in that era, the word "company" meant "incorporated") with big time gaps in between them.
The first of them appears in a 1908 New Mexico newspaper article, with its mention as a credential of one Nate P. Wilson of Denver who has established himself in Las Cruces after 'many years experience with the Colorado Saddlery Company of Denver'. This company is mentioned in newspaper articles both before, and after, 1908.
The company that is in business today is based on articles of incorporation made in 1946; or one year later than once thought, by four ex-Heiser employees who broke away when Heiser was acquired by Denver Dry Goods, a huge retailer (I'm awaiting receipt of a book about DDG that should confirm or deny this acquisition, there being no other evidence).
Those four were: A.J. Kippen, about whom I've posted often because he moved around the holster industry (b. 1913 d. 1992); P.R. Van Scoyk, who also gets a mention on this forum from time to time (b. 1919 d. 2012); F.T. Clark (b. 1915 d. 2006); and K.L. Dahlstrom (b. 1919 d. 1974). We can see that they were very similar ages in 1946.
Pershing Van Scoyk was still signing company documents as its President in 1970, and so we now can see that Colorado Saddlery, despite including Hunter holsters in their later catalogues, was a separate company from Hunter (founded 1952) to this day.
Kippen, according to Roger Combs very good "Gun Digest Book of Holsters and other Gunleather" (tho Roger misspelled Kippen's name as Kippin throughout), returned to Heiser "later"; then moved on to Bucheimer (lots happened to Heiser after 1946) then later to be production manager at the new Smith & Wesson holster company (formerly Wolfram's Blazer company) late '60s and today known as Gould & Goodrich. Kippen was an innovator and invented the thumb snap in 1956/7 along with his boss then, G.R. Bucheimer.
A newspaper obituary (2000) reveals that one J.L. Bianco worked at both CS and at Hunter for more than 40 years, as a 'leather engraver'. Both Colorado Saddlery, and Hunter, are based in the Denver area to this day. The present-day Hunter Company Inc. was originally called H.C. Acquisition Corporation when it was incorporated in 1983.
The Colorado Saddlery Company, Denver
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