This was Remington’s second most popular work after The Bronco Buster (0827.34). About 90 casts of the large version of The Rattlesnake were sold between 1909 and 1920, only nine of which were produced during his lifetime. The first model of The Rattlesnake was reworked in 1908 by the artist after 11 bronzes had been cast between 1905 and 1908. He transformed it by changing the pose of the cowboy, tucking the horse’s rear legs and making it three inches taller. This is the larger later version. The retail price of $325 was not increased for the larger size and may have influenced the foundry to expend less care on finishing the larger versions.

From the exhibition:Frontier to Foundry: the Making of Small Bronze Sculpture in the Gilcrease Collection, December 2014 - March 2015.
Ann Boulton Young, Associate Conservator for the Gilcrease Museum, 2014.

This bronze is cast number 58. Gilcrease records and Greenbaum inaccurately identify this as cast number 28. Although there is no date of sale for it in the ledger, cast numbers 56, 57, 60, and 61 all sold in 1918.

Ann Boulton Young, Associate Conservator for the Gilcrease Museum, 2018