Ebay Auction: Duff Tweed's Jack Harris – World Champion Bronco Buster and member of the Slaughterhouse Four

You don’t know Jack?

 This Duff Tweed carving of Jack Harris sold on Ebay in auction on October 2, 2010 for $190.50 plus shipping. We captured the pictures below from the sellers listing while it was still active on Ebay. There were a total of 7 bidders who made a total of 14 bids! $190 is normally a very good price for a piece that was damaged and covered in white paint specks. However, this piece is actually pretty unique.

Looking below you can see good ‘ol Jack Harris is sporting a moustache, sideburns and even has a cigarette in his mouth. If you go back and look at all the other carvings of Jack Harris in the Slaughterhouse Four, he does not have a cigarette or any markings.


At first, I suspected someone had played around with this carving, but the cigarette looks authentic and I think Duff was having a good time working on this carving.

The seller noted previous damage as follows: “He has some paint specks on his face, he is dusty, he is missing a small amount of his scarf which stuck out past his shoulder also his right arm has been repaired quite well at one time (re-glued).”



Now, normally one of these would sell for $100 according to recent sales, but this one holds some other unique qualities. The back of this one is signed “Duff Tweed 1950”, making this one of his very early Slaughterhouse Four carvings. I almost wonder if it’s the first.

In addition to the dated “1950” signature, this carving shows wood grain I haven’t seen in any other Duff Tweed carving.  Take a close look below at the grain of the wood in the left leg of Jack Harris.  It’s difficult to tell if it’s the grain of the wood or if it’s the paintbrush strokes from a shellac or preservative.

What I actually noticed first, but am mentioning last was Jack’s suspenders, chaffs, and boots were all done in a darker color/stain, once again unique to this particular Duff Tweed carving of Jack Harris, World Champion Bronco Buster and member of the Slaughterhouse Four from Mesa, Arizona.

Hope you enjoyed seeing one of Duff’s earlier carvings in what now seems to be a very popular area of interest for collectors, Cowboys and Bull Riders of the West.

All the best!
-Joe