Maker Specific--Gaylord and Seventrees

[JayCeeNC]

Charles “Chic” Gaylord and Paris Theodore (Seventrees Holsters) were both holster makers in New York City in the 1960s and 1970s.
Gaylord’s designs were taken over by “Lefty” Lewis of Bell Charter Oak holsters; Seventrees design rigs are now made by Ken L. Null.

Some of these holsters are unmarked but are Gaylord rigs as best I can determine, partly based on stitching recognition by “Red” Nichols as explained in another thread on the Forum.

Though not marked, this appears to be a Gaylord Treasury Thunderbolt.
An interesting feature is the leather piece situated in the bottom portion of the belt loop.
This slightly forces the bottom of the holster away from the body while slightly forcing the upper part of the gun into the body.
This prevents the gun from “hanging” or flopping away from the body at the uppermost part.

This is another Gaylord rig; I believe it’s a model of the Federal Speed Scabbard for K-frame guns.

A Gaylord Defender inside the waistband holster for the Government Model .45. This has a faint Gaylord stamp on the top.

Unusual Seventrees marked paddle style rig for a revolver; probably designed as a Small Of Back holster.

Seventrees Model RSS for J-frame. This was made by Ken Null; he told me he used this stamp until 1975 when he moved to Georgia where he now operates.

 

[crazyphil]

Gaylord & Seventrees Reproductions

Those original Gaylord and Seventrees are very scarce.
I have a few reproductions. Below left to right:

RSS (Revolver Super Speed) by Ken Null

Gaylord Combat Speed Scabbard by Lefty Lewis dba Bell-Charter-Oak.

Gaylord Speed Scabbard by Thad Rybka.

Gaylord Speed Scabbard by PWL (Price Western Leather)
When I first saw PWL's version on their PWL-USA site they
called in an eightball. I pointed out to them that the eightball
was Chic's style of a pocket holster. Eight in the side pocket.
Get it? BTW the piece is Ruger's SP101 .357 with Crimson Trace,
the belt by Milt Sparks, the knife a Junkyard Dog II by Kershaw.

 

[-db-]

Some I have/had:

Gaylord and Seventrees 1911 holsters

Gaylord Luger holster

Seventrees J-frame holster (compared to B-M)

 

[JayCeeNC]

Neat rigs, -db-!
The Gaylord Luger Holster has to be one of a kind.

 

[-db-]

Neat rigs, -db-!
The Gaylord Luger Holster has to be one of a kind.

That's one I've parted with but yes, I would assume there weren't many made, not only because it's for a Luger but the belt loop is very small, an inch or less if I remember correctly. Someone wanted a good holster that could be worn on a thin dress belt.

 

[rednichols]

The little folded-up Seventrees reminds that Paris was seemingly obsessed with making his designs from a single blank. You will see this in most of his models and in his drawings of new designs and in his patents, too.

 

[lawandorder]

Thank you guys for sharing images of these two makers work. Both pretty scarce.

 

[rednichols]

That's one I've parted with but yes, I would assume there weren't many made, not only because it's for a Luger but the belt loop is very small, an inch or less if I remember correctly. Someone wanted a good holster that could be worn on a thin dress belt.

The trousers belts of Chic's era were always narrow, about 1" wide. It was the '70s that brought us wider belts, derived from the hippie culture of the period.

Which reminds me, in reviewing my copy of Chic's 'Handgunners Guide', I was surprised to see that he considered Tom Threepersons' holster to be perhaps the best ever; though there's no indication that he understood the role of the welts in a Threepersons because Chic did not use them.

Chic's book, encountered in a public library in Oakland in 1966 when this young teen moved there from London, England, is what inspired me to be a holster designer/maker. Oakland, as an aside, was a venue right out of the original Dirty Harry films then.

 

[-db-]

Another eBay-advertised "unknown", I got this Gaylord Missouri Skintite in today. I was hoping it would fit my USFA SAA clone but it's sized for one of the smaller frame SAs.

 

[crazyphil]

Chic tells us, in his book, how to make the Missouri Skin Tight holster.
I made this one for fun. Don't tell me. I know I won't make it as a
holster maker.

 

[-db-]

A little more wear on the backside and this one would have joined the ranks of unknown oldies, but I could make out just enough of the maker's mark, from the sellers' photos, to realize it's a Gaylord:

With no clue as to fit aside from it being for a smaller semi-auto and a very limited number of those on hand, just for the hell of it I tried my Glock 43 in it and was surprised to find it practically a perfect fit, just the right amount of snugness with no wobble whatsoever, as if it were made for the gun. Rounding the Glock's trigger guard and eliminating that useless "hook" at front awhile ago likely helped with this.

Now I'm probably the only owner on the planet of Glock's newest pistol with an authentic Chic Gaylord crossdraw rig for it.

 

[JayCeeNC]

That's a pretty extreme angle cross-draw; I've not seen one like that before.
Nice catch.

 

[rednichols]

A little more wear on the backside and this one would have joined the ranks of unknown oldies, but I could make out just enough of the maker's mark, from the sellers' photos, to realize it's a Gaylord:

With no clue as to fit aside from it being for a smaller semi-auto and a very limited number of those on hand, just for the hell of it I tried my Glock 43 in it and was surprised to find it practically a perfect fit, just the right amount of snugness with no wobble whatsoever, as if it were made for the gun. Rounding the Glock's trigger guard and eliminating that useless "hook" at front awhile ago likely helped with this.

Now I'm probably the only owner on the planet of Glock's newest pistol with an authentic Chic Gaylord crossdraw rig for it.

Look inside for markings of cylinder flutes. I expect its for a DA revolver. Glocks are dimensionally quite similar to the 1911 and the big autos are well known to fit into DA revolver holsters but losing the grip clearance for the second finger's knuckle.

First time I've seen Chic's mark rendered in ink. Its use is significant but of what I dunno.

 

[-db-]

Red, looking inside for impressions and other clues is always one of the first things I do with mystery holsters like this and usually I'm able to figure out the gun this way but this one shows only long rectangular witness wear from an unknown semi-auto slide. Futhermore, the holster body itself is very flat and square (rectangular in shape looking down into the mouth whereas holsters for revolvers are typically oval in shape from this same angle) with no boning for a revolver cylinder. I could probably come close to figuring out what gun it was actually made for by researching which older pistols were roughly the same size/shape as a modern Glock 43. It may be for an Officers model 1911 or something similarly smaller.

 

[rednichols]

Red, looking inside for impressions and other clues is always one of the first things I do with mystery holsters like this and usually I'm able to figure out the gun this way but this one shows only long rectangular witness wear from an unknown semi-auto slide. Futhermore, the holster body itself is very flat and square (rectangular in shape looking down into the mouth whereas holsters for revolvers are typically oval in shape from this same angle) with no boning for a revolver cylinder. I could probably come close to figuring out what gun it was actually made for by researching which older pistols were roughly the same size/shape as a modern Glock 43. It may be for an Officers model 1911 or something similarly smaller.

Well done. Tho I doubt there were any Officer's models in Chic's day . As I recall there is a list on Wikipedia of all pistols and revolvers along with their introduction date. With Chic I reckon you'd have to stop at the early '60s. The muzzle end is quite rounded inside, one wouldn't expect a square ended auto. Good luck!

 

[sjb66coronet]

1950's 8-Ball pocket holster

by Chic Gaylord.

 

[-db-]

Here's a Gaylord for a 6" N-frame I don't believe I've shown before:

 

[crazyphil]

Charles “Chic” Gaylord and Paris Theodore (Seventrees Holsters) were both holster makers in New York City in the 1960s and 1970s.
Gaylord’s designs were taken over by “Lefty” Lewis of Bell Charter Oak holsters; Seventrees design rigs are now made by Ken L. Null.

Some of these holsters are unmarked but are Gaylord rigs as best I can determine, partly based on stitching recognition by “Red” Nichols as explained in another thread on the Forum.

Though not marked, this appears to be a Gaylord Treasury Thunderbolt.
An interesting feature is the leather piece situated in the bottom portion of the belt loop.
This slightly forces the bottom of the holster away from the body while slightly forcing the upper part of the gun into the body.
This prevents the gun from “hanging” or flopping away from the body at the uppermost part.

This is another Gaylord rig; I believe it’s a model of the Federal Speed Scabbard for K-frame guns.

A Gaylord Defender inside the waistband holster for the Government Model .45. This has a faint Gaylord stamp on the top.

Unusual Seventrees marked paddle style rig for a revolver; probably designed as a Small Of Back holster.

Seventrees Model RSS for J-frame. This was made by Ken Null; he told me he used this stamp until 1975 when he moved to Georgia where he now operates.

I don't think the Gaylord and Seventrees holsters were unmarked
by the makers. They marked them in the rough side of the leather
and with a little wear the mark disappears. I have 2
Gaylords and 1 Seventrees that do not have marks, but Red
authenticated them by the stitch signatures.

Here, left to right:
Chic Gaylord Combat Speed Scabbard with S&W model 29.
Seventrees Combat Speed Scabbard with S&W model 19
Chic Gaylord small speed scabbard with S&W model 642

 

[SG-688]

A probable but unmarked auto pistol version of -db-'s Seventrees security holster and pictures from the patent application.


UPDATE: Red Nichols found a better patent - the holster is actually by Robert Angell, predating the Seventrees by a couple of years.

UPDATE ...to the update:

We discovered that Angell worked for both Chic Gaylord and Seventrees, perhaps being the conduit of Gaylord's design theories to Seventrees.
Angell later had his own company, Active Leather, with similar one-piece designs.

 

[stu1ritter]

I went into Chick's shop in 1964 and had him make a gun belt for me. Sorry for the lack of quality in the photo but it is all I have of that era. I think it was closer to 1.5" than 1".

Stu