Billy the Kid Played Croquet...Who Knew?

[warren]

You guys just didn't play viciously enough. It's a good feeling when you thump another ball into the next county. We often used the ball and mallets to play a rather serious game of roller skate polo. Impact proof kids! Gotta luv 'em. No helmets, pads or gloves in sight. I think our parents knew that getting bruised and broken up a bit was a necessary part of growing up.

 

[johnnyreb]

I watched the program & thought it was very good. They were on a very remote part of the Tunstill ranch for the wedding. I found it interesting that when the groom was shot & killed sometime later he still carried a pic in his pocket of his bride & him taken that very day! At that time the only way they could identify him was by the wedding pic he carried.

 

[kcghost]

I watched the program and I would have a hard time convincing myself to drop $5M on this picture (assuming I had that kind of jack). All the evidence was very circumstantial and there was no clear provenance (i.e. chain of possession) for the item.

 

[johnnyreb]

I watched the program and I would have a hard time convincing myself to drop $5M on this picture (assuming I had that kind of jack). All the evidence was very circumstantial and there was no clear provenance (i.e. chain of possession) for the item.

I'm not saying this Tintype is worth $5M or that it will bring anywhere near that amount. Supposedly there are two interested buyers negotiating to buy it. One of those buyers is very likely to be William Koch who owns the only other authenticated Tintype of Billy the Kid ($2.3M). I hope the two Tintypes can be brought together for the first time ever in a private collection. As a collection their individual values will increase & sometime down the road Koch (or his estate) will be rewarded for his investment, as it should be. In the meantime the Tintypes will be preserved & well cared for.
As far as the authentication process, the building & the location, the identification thru other Tintypes of most everyone present that day, the diary, etc were more than enough to convince me. At this point in time all evidence of authentication can only be circumstantial and there can be no provenance in support of a lost Tintype photo.

 

[okiescout]

Great thread, Johnnyreb.
I wonder if everyone let "the kid" win?

 

[johnnyreb]

Thanks Okie.
Concerning authentication & provenance, imposters usually can't get their facts right anyway. One prime example that usually trips up all the people thru the yrs who have made the claim that Jesse James was their great-grandfather & lived past the turn of the century is the fact that when Jesse was ~15 yrs old, shortly before he joined Quantrill & rode under Bloody Bill Anderson, he accidentally shot off one of his finger tips while loading a cap & ball pistol. It is true that Jesse was greatly embarrassed by that fact and in postwar photographs it was common for him to either roll the fingers up on his left hand or otherwise hide his hand whenever photographs were taken. Nevertheless photographs do exist where his nubbin of a ring finger can be seen on his left hand. To date none of the imposters who have come forward claiming their great-grandfather was Jesse James have ever produced a photograph of "Grandpa" later in life with a nubbin for a ring finger. Even J. Frank Dalton who made a living as a story teller claiming to be Jesse didn't know about the nubbin.