J.R. McChesney Gal-Leg Spurs, c. 1920
DESCRIPTIONMade by the famous J.R. McChesney about 1920 and known as the No. 8 Pattern, these spurs at their core are made from a single piece of metal, his signature, with each of the embellishments added atop.
With an eye-catching design of playing card suits adorning the heels – diamonds, spades, and hearts, each engraved with intricate florals and flourishes – and decorated lady's legs along the shanks, these antique spurs have always made a statement for the cowboy wearing them.
The popular gal-leg shank design is embellished with copper stockings and silver boots over the small 6-point star rowels. A simple pressed line design on the leathers complements the elaborate heels and shanks and allows the engraved additions to shine.
See history & context below.
DETAILS & MEASUREMENTSEach measures 10” length x 6” width
No markers mark, very common for J.R. McChesney
Some wear and patina from age and use
DESCRIPTIONMade by the famous J.R. McChesney about 1920 and known as the No. 8 Pattern, these spurs at their core are made from a single piece of metal, his signature, with each of the embellishments added atop.
With an eye-catching design of playing card suits adorning the heels – diamonds, spades, and hearts, each engraved with intricate florals and flourishes – and decorated lady's legs along the shanks, these antique spurs have always made a statement for the cowboy wearing them.
The popular gal-leg shank design is embellished with copper stockings and silver boots over the small 6-point star rowels. A simple pressed line design on the leathers complements the elaborate heels and shanks and allows the engraved additions to shine.
See history & context below.
DETAILS & MEASUREMENTSEach measures 10” length x 6” width
No markers mark, very common for J.R. McChesney
Some wear and patina from age and use
DESCRIPTIONMade by the famous J.R. McChesney about 1920 and known as the No. 8 Pattern, these spurs at their core are made from a single piece of metal, his signature, with each of the embellishments added atop.
With an eye-catching design of playing card suits adorning the heels – diamonds, spades, and hearts, each engraved with intricate florals and flourishes – and decorated lady's legs along the shanks, these antique spurs have always made a statement for the cowboy wearing them.
The popular gal-leg shank design is embellished with copper stockings and silver boots over the small 6-point star rowels. A simple pressed line design on the leathers complements the elaborate heels and shanks and allows the engraved additions to shine.
See history & context below.
DETAILS & MEASUREMENTSEach measures 10” length x 6” width
No markers mark, very common for J.R. McChesney
Some wear and patina from age and use
➼ History & Context
Gal-Leg spurs, also known as “lady-leg” spurs are notable for their design, in which the shaft of the spur is created to resemble a woman’s leg – thus the name! Often sporting various outfits engraved into the metal, including various designs of garters, stockings, or fishnets and accompanied by a range of different boots, and sometimes using different metals to accentuate each portion of the design, gal-legs bring a bit of flair to the spurs. Sometimes they even had the leg designs on both sides of the shaft – earning them the “double gal-leg” moniker.
Gal-legs were popular with Texas and southwestern cowboys in particular, and every spur maker had their own signature on the design to differentiate their work at a glance – whether that be an element of the woman’s outfit or the method of engraving or metal choice.
This pair of gal-leg spurs was crafted by J.R. McChesney around 1920. John Robert McChesney was born in 1866 in South Bend, Indiana and moved around a fair amount through Arkansas and Texas while building his blacksmithing craft until he landed in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma in 1910. He began making decorative spurs and bits early on, and even opened his own shop in Broken Arrow in the 1880s. His pieces were the first to be created from a single unbroken piece of metal.
McChesney became known for his single-piece bits & spurs forged from pieces of local farm equipment, axels, and harrow teeth, and the technique quickly became the predominant style in Texas. His single-piece spurs were strong and durable without a joint between the heel band and shank – a potential weak point that could break under pressure.
JR has been attributed the “goose neck” decorative style, which later developed into the gal-leg, that many people also ascribe to McChesney. Once in Oklahoma, he purchased an entire city block and built a factory to produce larger numbers of bits & spurs; at its peak he employed 50 workers. Other famous spur-makers were known to have worked for him at one time or another in their careers – including Clyde Parker, P.M. Kelly, and Tom Johnson.
He never wavered from his objective to create high-end hand-crafted wares, even when his catalog included over 120 spur patterns and 64 bridle patterns. Even when other companies began to quickly mass produce, McChesney countered by slimming down and staying true to quality.
His designs include plants, animals, and geometric patterns, and his gal-leg spurs are some of the most collectible. He specialized in featuring hand-engraving as well as copper & silver inlay. McChesney’s work is known to be top quality and some of the finest of type, and he rarely marked his work because he was known to say that the quality was all the signature he needed.
