Rare Wild Bill Hickok CDV Arrives at Cowan's!
Yippee Ki Yay, Wild Bill Hickok Has Arrived Today!
I am pleased to announce the addition of a rare Wild Bill Hickok cdv to Cowan's Upcoming Civil War / American History Featuring the West Auction, taking place June 11, 2010. The photograph, pictured above, features a rare pose of Hickok, misidentified below the portrait as "Buffalo Bill." The cdv includes the back mark of the "New River Side Gallery, Topeka, Kansas."
In the book The West of Wild Bill Hickok, Joseph G. Rosa includes two of the only known portraits based on this particular photograph, an engraving of "Wild Bill - From a Photograph," and a copy cdv of the original photograph, which was discovered in 1955. According to Rosa, the photographer of the original photograph was unknown, but the backmark indicates that the "New River Side Gallery" took this rare portrait, most likely between 1868-1870 (Rosa, 1982: 111-112).
We have placed a pre-auction estimate of $8,000-$10,000 on this fine image, but we anticipate things getting a little wild and crazy when Wild Bill Hickok comes up on the auction block on June 11, 2010!
-Katie Landrigan