Manufactured in the mid-1870s to 1890s by L. Kiper & Sons of Atchison, Kansas. By the late 1860s and early 1870s, with the arrival of multiple railroad links, Atchison had become a booming commercial hub, particularly for the cattle industry and manufactured goods heading farther west to the Frontier. Period newspapers show L. Kiper & Sons advertising their leather business there starting in the early 1870s and continuing until at least the 1890s. This is a fine example of a "Mexican Loop" type holster that was popular during the period that has two oval loops capturing the body of the holster, with the top one bearing the maker's mark. There is light border and floral tooling on the body of the holster. A very similar example of a Kiper & Sons holster is pictured on p. 106 of "Packing Iron: Gunleather of the Frontier West" by Rattenbury. Included with the holster is an early style cartridge belt that is certainly of Kiper quality and appears to have been paired with the holster for quite some time judging by consistent color and wear. It has a single row of cartridge loops that are of .44 or .45 caliber size and has a "California style" buckle with clipped corners. The belt is 2 1/8 inches wide and measures approximately 40 3/8 inches long including the buckle and billet.

Good, the holster showing significant wear, typical of working gunleather from the Kansas cattle era, some scattered mild age cracking, and most of the tooling and markings remaining clear. The belt shows similar wear, having the look of being a companion of the holster for some time with some moderate age-related cracking. A rare piece of Kansas-made gunleather from the period of westward expansion!