Vintage Harley-Davidson W style, some questions

[Raul]

Hi, a friend owns what seems to be an Harley-Davidson W-style with a wonderful patina.
He asked me some more infos about it and how much could it be worth.
I am not an expert, the Tanaka book shows one of these in black steerhide, while his one seems to me a brown horsehide but I could be wrong. Were these done also in HH? Is correct dating it from the 1950s?
Any idea if it is common or rare and how much could it be worth?
The patina is great but the collar is in very bad conditions (cracked/rotted leather) making it nearly unwearable.
Here are a few pics. Thanks

 

[Monitor]

This indeed is the early Harley-Davidson cross zip though I'm not certain about the age. Could be 50's but I don't know how long in they were making these. Earliest ones had an even older Talon and the decorations were more elaborate. There's the "High quality, Fine Workmanship" tag... This is the jacket that the AMF had Brooks copy later on.

As to what it's worth... It's hard to say but I believe you would do good to list it high and be (very) patient. There are people out there specifically searching for a jacket that's showing this much wear 'cause it's something you just can't fake, so I'm sure they'd pay relatively good money for it but it might be a long process. Otherwise, as these jackets do still pop out occasionally, only in a better or often surprisingly good state, price-wise there's no use competing with them.

Also, while these were made from horse leather at some point, without a tag clearly confirming this, any speculation is pointless.

 

[jeo]

These are from the late 50’s. They were all steerhide, never horsehide. There are two versions of these late 50’s HD jackets, an earlier one that doesn’t have snaps on the top collar and then the one pictured which is later with button snaps on both top and bottom collars. These are not very rare. Prices are all over the place starting from like $150-$200 to sometimes you see the Japanese list these for $1000+ wether or not they get that amount is a different story.

 

[photo2u]

Nice jacket. I believe it is late 50's. The zip is a replacement. But the other talons are original to the jacket. Those were mainly used in the late 50's. Later in the orange labels they started to use to nice conmars and conmatics. I have both label jackets. I must agree with Jeo regarding the price.