|
|
Post by Kevin Young on May 16, 2010 11:43:10 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Wade Dillon on May 16, 2010 16:27:42 GMT -5
Oh my God! I hope this is legit. This is an important piece of history and belongs at the Alamo. What a story...
Thanks for posting, Kevin! My girlfriend is going to flip out.
|
|
|
|
Post by TRK on May 16, 2010 17:25:38 GMT -5
Where's the provenance? lol
|
|
|
|
Post by Kevin Young on May 16, 2010 18:16:09 GMT -5
Where's the provenance? lol I was asking the same question. Apparently, Santa Anna lost a heck of lot of personal items at Cerro Gordon (two wooden legs, a carriage, box of gold coins, chicken dinner, field cot, souviners from the Alamo). Alamo artifacts are like pieces of the true cross... |
|
|
|
Post by sloanrodgers on May 16, 2010 18:24:45 GMT -5
I'm also skeptical of newly discovered Alamo relics. I'm especially suspicious when they suddenly appear on the release
of Alamo movies and key dates like the 160th anniversary of the battle. Beyond these two factors is their any evidence
that Travis wore a gaudy double-eagled flower belt? The hand-scrawled museum tag doesn't even mention the Alamo or
Travis, which makes me think that story came much later. A good story attracts the gullible, but I'd like a little evidence.
|
|
|
|
Post by Kevin Young on May 16, 2010 18:39:18 GMT -5
I'm also skeptical of newly discovered Alamo relics. I'm especially suspicious when they suddenly appear on the release of Alamo movies and key dates like the 160th anniversary of the battle. Beyond these two factors is their any evidence that Travis wore a gaudy double-eagled flower belt? The hand-scrawled museum tag doesn't even mention the Alamo or Travis, which makes me think that story came much later. A good story attracts the gullible, but I'd like a little evidence. Good points-but heck, I am somewhat skeptical of most Alamo artifacts! |
|
|
|
Post by Wade Dillon on May 17, 2010 0:37:55 GMT -5
No doubt, I want to know what the provenance is, too. I just get overly enthusiastic about pieces of history. Things like these always have a way of pulling you in and sparking the imagination.
|
|
|
|
Post by gtj222 on May 17, 2010 11:37:33 GMT -5
Where has this mystery belt been all this time and why has nobody known of it until now? Something just does not smell right.
|
|
|
|
Post by marklemon on May 17, 2010 12:15:03 GMT -5
This belt has been around the collector circles for several years now. Gary Wiggins showed it to me (in an earlier Hendershott catalogue) back in 2008. There must be some problem with it, as if it has been out there for several years, and been inspected (as surely it must have been) by experts prior to bidding on it, then it would have been looonnng gone if authentic. Perhaps it is as advertised, found among Santa Anna's effects after Cerro Gordo, but that is a far cry from proving it came from Travis' body.
On another note, I find it more than a little disturbing that a buff-colored "plantation" style hat, advertised as a "Confederate Officer's slouch hat" in lot 6 of this catalogue, is the very same hat (which, when I had it, had a worsted yellow chord, not a blue one) that was sold to me on condition of it's authenticity, and at that time advertised as a Texas cavalry officer's hat from the 10th Texas Cavalry, CSA.
As it turned out, I had the hat looked at by four different experts at a Georgia Civil War Collector's show in 2008, and each one (independently of the others) labeled it a falsely aged fake. When they heard who sold it to me, every one of them rolled his eyes, and said: "Oh, THAT explains it!" Evidently, this person was once "outed" on ebay for trying to pawn off a purported Republic of Texas uniform coat with recast R of T buttons added. He's well known among clollector circles nationwide as a fraud.
Thankfully, after much wrangling, I got my money back, but it was close....
What this has to do with the topic at hand is, that this person has done, and continues to do, a great deal of business with the maker of this catalogue.
"CAVEAT EMPTOR"
|
|
|
|
Post by Kevin Young on May 17, 2010 12:29:43 GMT -5
This belt has been around the collector circles for several years now. Gary Wiggins showed it to me (in an earlier Hendershott catalogue) back in 2008. There must be some problem with it, as if it has been out there for several years, and been inspected (as surely it must have been) by experts prior to bidding on it, then it would have been looonnng gone if authentic. Perhaps it is as advertised, found among Santa Anna's effects after Cerro Gordo, but that is a far cry from proving it came from Travis' body. On another note, I find it more than a little disturbing that a buff-colored "plantation" style hat, advertised as a "Confederate Officer's slouch hat" in lot 6 of this catalogue, is the very same hat (which, when I had it, had a worsted yellow chord, not a blue one) that was sold to me on condition of it's authenticity, and at that time advertised as a Texas cavalry officer's hat from the 10th Texas Cavalry, CSA. As it turned out, I had the hat looked at by four different experts at a Georgia Civil War Collector's show in 2008, and each one (independently of the others) labeled it a falsely aged fake. When they heard who sold it to me, every one of them rolled his eyes, and said: "Oh, THAT explains it!" Evidently, this person was once "outed" on ebay for trying to pawn off a purported Republic of Texas uniform coat with recast R of T buttons added. He's well known among clollector circles nationwide as a fraud. Thankfully, after much wrangling, I got my money back, but it was close.... What this has to do with the topic at hand is, that this person has done, and continues to do, a great deal of business with the maker of this catalogue. "CAVEAT EMPTOR" Very interesting. I remember when the Santa Anna cot appeared as having been captured at San Jacinto and then, as it turns out, captured at Cerro Gordo....the Fannin document makes me wonder as well... |
|
|
|
Post by sloanrodgers on May 17, 2010 12:46:50 GMT -5
Good points-but heck, I am somewhat skeptical of most Alamo artifacts! No! You mean like the Travis cat gut ring, Dickert rifle, Crockett vest, etc? Maybe if some honest person advertised something as a genuine Alamo fake, it would turn out to be authentic.  |
|
|
|
Post by Kevin Young on May 17, 2010 12:55:43 GMT -5
Good points-but heck, I am somewhat skeptical of most Alamo artifacts! No! You mean like the Travis cat gut ring, Dickert rifle, Crockett vest, etc? Maybe if some honest person advertized something as a genuine Alamo fake, it would turn out to be authentic.  |
|
|
|
Post by mustanggray on May 23, 2010 12:04:21 GMT -5
Kevin and I have discussed this offline and my question is, why isn't it enough that this is/could be one of Santa Anna's personal belts captured at CG? I mean, I think that's pretty dang cool in and of itself... but then who am I to say?
I'm very skeptical of alot of stuff Alamo/ROT/MAW/Texas related!
And Rod... shame on you for doubting the Travis ring... if you take it out in the sun and look into it at the right angle you can see an image of Travis himself! Right Kevin?
SMc
|
|
|
|
Post by Kevin Young on May 23, 2010 12:22:49 GMT -5
;D
|
|
|
|
Post by sloanrodgers on May 23, 2010 20:03:56 GMT -5
And Rod... shame on you for doubting the Travis ring... if you take it out in the sun and look into it at the right angle you can see an image of Travis himself! Right Kevin? What do expect for a sham Travis Ring? Well, if the ring had a more feminine quality and a green reflective cat's eye stone instead of Travis' portrait, I might buy the D.A.R.'s story about the authenticity of this ring. As it is now, I think the alleged Travis Ring is about as close to the real thing as the piece in the link below. ;D Cat's Eye Ball Ring www.kimsjewels.com/greencateye-r.jpg |
|
