Details
MASTERSON, WILLIAM BARCLAY ("Bat"), Frontier lawman, sports writer. Oversize photograph inscribed and signed ("W.B. Masterson,"), mount bears large imprint of Otto Sarony Co., New York, N.Y., Masterson's inscription dated New York, 24 November 1904. 410 x 245mm. (16 1/8 x 9 5/8 in.) including mount, top right-hand corner of mount torn away along with a tiny triangle of the photo, the mount soiled, browned, and nicked at edges, the image with very minor soiling, otherwise good, in shaped double mat, glazed in a giltwood frame. An attractive portrait of Masterson standing, hands in pockets, nattily dressed in a dark suit and bow-tie, a gold watch chain visible against his patterned vest. Inscribed in black ink at bottom left portion against gray background: "To my old friend and Pal E. F. Colburn W.B. Masterson New York Nov. 24 1904." Very rare.
OVERSIZE "BAT" MASTERSON PHOTOGRAPH, INSCRIBED ON HIS 51ST BIRTHDAY
Very rare. Sarony, one of the best-known commercial studios in New York, seldom produced images of this size. The photo was inscribed on Masterson's 51st birthday, and may well be a momento of a birthday affair that day. In the course of his extraordinary career, Masterson was a buffalo hunter, frontier scout, gold-prospector, sheriff, deputy marshall of Dodge City, and assistant to Wyatt Earp at Tombstone, but his principal occupation was gambler ("a mode of livelihood which in those days on the frontier was generally deemed quite as respectable as any other gainful employment" -DAB). In 1902 Masterson, an avid fan of pugilism, went to New York and the following year became a sports columnist on the staff of the New York Morning Telegraph. At the time of his death, less than a year later (on 25 October 1905), Masterson was sports editor of the paper. "As a peace officer, he ranks with Earp, Hickok, and Tilghman, a fearless company, of whom it has been strikingly said that they 'shot their way to heaven' by subduing the lawless, protecting the weak, and establishing peace and order" (-DAB).
OVERSIZE "BAT" MASTERSON PHOTOGRAPH, INSCRIBED ON HIS 51ST BIRTHDAY
Very rare. Sarony, one of the best-known commercial studios in New York, seldom produced images of this size. The photo was inscribed on Masterson's 51st birthday, and may well be a momento of a birthday affair that day. In the course of his extraordinary career, Masterson was a buffalo hunter, frontier scout, gold-prospector, sheriff, deputy marshall of Dodge City, and assistant to Wyatt Earp at Tombstone, but his principal occupation was gambler ("a mode of livelihood which in those days on the frontier was generally deemed quite as respectable as any other gainful employment" -DAB). In 1902 Masterson, an avid fan of pugilism, went to New York and the following year became a sports columnist on the staff of the New York Morning Telegraph. At the time of his death, less than a year later (on 25 October 1905), Masterson was sports editor of the paper. "As a peace officer, he ranks with Earp, Hickok, and Tilghman, a fearless company, of whom it has been strikingly said that they 'shot their way to heaven' by subduing the lawless, protecting the weak, and establishing peace and order" (-DAB).