Treasures from Our West: Horn of plenty

Originally featured in Points West magazine in Summer 2010

Ornate horn of plenty

This unique piece was a gift from Mr. and Mrs. William F. Cody to his sister May and her husband Louis on the occasion of their marriage in 1907. May’s first husband, Edward Clark Bradford, died in 1896 after fourteen years of marriage. At her brother’s suggestion, May moved to Cody in February 1906 to manage the Irma Hotel for him, along with some of his other business interests. The very next month, Louis Decker, a trusted associate of Buffalo Bill’s who had worked for him in the Wild West, arrived in Cody to do the same thing! By the end of the year, they were in love and happily co-managing the Colonel’s three hotels: the Irma, Pahaska Tepee, and Wapiti Inn.

The horn is a steer horn which is attached to an elaborate brass stand decorated with two lion heads; the lid has a winged lion on top. This horn of plenty is a typical Victorian decorative arts-style horn that often contained fragrant sachets to give the room a pleasant aroma—a sort of Victorian air-freshener. Fortunately, it remained in the Cody family until the Buffalo Bill Museum purchased it in 1958.

Horn of plenty. Museum Purchase, William Cody Boal Collection. 1.69.238

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