All About Brian

Brian Lebel has been in the western collecting business for nearly 40 years. Born and raised in Massachusetts, he grew up during the golden era of the Hollywood cowboy, along with a grandmother who taught him an appreciation of antiques. In his 20s, while working at Smith & Wesson, he travelled to Cody, Wyoming to do a weekend gun show, and his life was forever changed. He went home, quit his job, and moved to Wyoming. He was drawn to outdoor work—cowboy work—and moved around the Cody area, immersing himself in the Western lifestyle.

He worked for a time in the Bridger Teton Wilderness as a guide and outfitter, living in a tent deep in the forest. If you’d hired an outfitter to take you on a days-long horseback trip into the wilderness, Brian was the guy waiting for you “in Camp.” He provided you with a ready tent, a hot meal and fresh horses. Quiet, competent, and a little mysterious (we’re told), he lived in Camp with the horses, in his private tent, in one of the most beautiful places he’d ever seen. As far as he was concerned—despite bears, blizzards, fires, dental emergencies, broken bones and all matter of wilderness mishaps and disasters—he had the greatest job on Earth.

Ever the antiques hound, Brian had developed a fascination and appreciation for the antique cowboy trappings he encountered in and around Wyoming, particularly while working at Valley Ranch outside of Cody. One day, while taking care of business in town, a stranger offered him $300 for the Crockett spurs he was wearing (more than a month’s pay on the ranch), and Brian had another epiphany. Not long after, he opened the Old West Antiques Gallery on Sheridan Avenue in Cody, upstairs from the Proud Cut Saloon and down the street from Buffalo Bill’s Irma Hotel. With a cowboy’s work ethic and an antique dealer’s eye for quality, Brian quickly turned the gallery into a popular downtown Cody destination.

Soon after, Brian founded the annual Cody Old West Show & Auction in Cody. In the early years, the show dealers would have to move all their merchandise off their tables at the end of the day, then all the tables would be pushed to the room’s perimeter so the crew could set up chairs for the evening’s live auction. The show ran only Friday and Saturday,* so on Sundays Brian would take the interested show dealers on a trail ride into the wilderness. These trail rides are legendary in certain circles, and if you ask people who were around back then, they will tell you the whole affair was all very magical.** Brian Lebel knows a few things, and one of them is how to throw a party.

The Cody Old West Show & Auction eventually outgrew Cody, and after 19 years, moved first to Denver, CO, then Fort Worth, TX, and on to Santa Fe, NM. In 2014, Brian and his wife Melissa purchased the venerable High Noon Show & Auction in Mesa, Arizona from Brian’s long-time business partners and friends, Joseph Sherwood and Linda Kohn Sherwood. With two annual shows and auctions to now promote, the Lebels created a new company, Old West Events, to manage the operations. The shows and auctions continued to grow and expand in both size and stature, becoming among the most successful and anticipated annual trade shows and auctions in the Americana collecting industry.

As often happens with successful niche businesses, the time arrived when selling Old West Events became the best option to meet the needs of its continually expanding audience and client base. In Spring of 2023, Brian and Melissa made the decision to sell Old West Events to the much-bigger and still-growing Morphy Auctions. (You can read the press release here.) Though no longer running the event businesses, Brian continues to own and operate Old West Antiques, utilizing his skills and expertise in the Western industry to provide services to clients and institutions around the country and overseas. He and Melissa currently live in central Georgia, where, believe it or not, cowboys are just as popular as everywhere else.

Want to get to know Brian better? Read True West Magazine’s Q&A with Brian in their “What History Has Taught Me” column. Or read Western Art & Architecture’s “Collectors Eye” column about Brian and Melissa’s personal collection. If you want to know absolutely everything you could ever think to want to know about Brian Lebel (and then some), listen to Mark Sublette’s podcast “Art Dealer Diaries” interview with Brian.***

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* Ask Brian, and he will happily tell you why a two-day show is superior to a three-day show.

** Bill Manns and Judy Benson have hundreds (probably thousands) of photos of the “Cody Old West” shows, people, auctions, parties and trail rides. Ask them about the good old days, or check out their Facebook pages to see these fabulous, time-capsule images; they really do capture a moment. (Thanks Bill & Judy!)

*** Even if you don’t listen to the Brian episode, do check out Mark Sublette’s other podcasts; they’re great.