Beautiful full silver overlaid "S" shank medium port bit with signature Raphael Gutierrez engraved conchos, and bearing the extremely rare “G&T” maker's mark for Raphael Gutierrez and Irl Terry. Circa mid to late 1920s.

This beautiful old bit was from the partnership between California bit makers Rafael "Filo" Gutierrez and Irl Terry. Raphael Gutierrez, nicknamed "Filo", was born in 1889 in San Francisco where he apprenticed in bit and spur making. Over time he would also work and train in Sacramento, Elko (working for G.S. Garcia), and Cheyenne, Wyoming before returning to San Francisco and opening his own shop on Le Comte Avenue.

Irl Terry, born in 1895, began working in the Hamley Saddlery in Pendleton, Oregon in 1914,. Irl would work at the Hamley shop for over a decade before leaving Oregon to head for California where he worked in Raphael Gutierrez’s shop in San Francisco. This partnership created created extremely fine bits and spurs that would bear the mark “G&T”.