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2403

Doc Holliday/Big Nose Kate Tintype 1870s [173966]

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Photographic Images - Antique Start Price:3,500.00 USD Estimated At:7,000.00 - 15,000.00 USD
Doc Holliday/Big Nose Kate Tintype 1870s [173966]
SOLD
4,500.00USD+ (1,125.00) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2023 Dec 08 @ 14:30UTC-8 : PST/AKDT

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There are only a handful (Maybe two or four) known photos of John Henry Holliday, better known as Doc Holliday along with his longtime companion Kate Horony, better known as "Big Nose Kate", (Born Maria Katalin Horony in Budapest Hungary) to be in existence.  According to world renowned forensic artist Lois Gibson, this 3.25 x 4" tintype is one of them. Gibson is noted in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most accurate forensic artist today, having solved several other crime identities for various police agencies across the country. Former dentist John Henry Holliday was a gambler and some said, notorious gunfighter, who befriended Wyatt Earp and his brothers and was involved in the famous gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Holliday, who contracted tuberculosis while caring for his mother in his earlier years, succumbed to the illness in Glenwood Springs, Colorado on November 8, 1887. His companion and some say, common-law wife was a Hungarian emigrant, who worked as a bartender, prostitute and saloon owner. Long after Holliday's death and a second marriage, she applied and was accepted into the Arizona Pioneers Home in Prescott, Arizona at the age of 80. This is where she passed away November 2, 1940, five days before her 90th birthday. This tintype has plenty of historical value and is in very nice condition.  Fort Griffin Texas

We received two emails challenging the authenticity of this photograph, both without offering any evidence whatsoever. As a company full of scientists and engineers, we listen carefully when credible evidence is offered and make our decisions based upon the best evidence possible at the time of offering. Our track record in this regard within the legal community is substantial. We offer this short discussion because people have a right to their opinion, even without substantiation.


It should be discussed that photography is a form of art, and has been considered so since its invention. It is yet another form of art that exists generally without the artist’s identification or any other identifying attributes. As such, it is subject to “opinion,” granted that the opinion is often a century or more removed from the time of the creation of the item. Real life examples abound, particularly in the oil painting market, where most recently a Caravaggio that was long ago discredited has now been proven to be original. In a prior essay of ours on photographs of the Ansel Adams school, inclusive of Ed Weston and Paul Strand, it was noted that Mr. Strand felt strongly that photographs were a form of art that should be priced the same as a good oil painting. Both of these forms of art through history are often unsigned, leading to multiple interpretations over time, many of greatly differing opinions.

DOC HOLLIDAY
John Henry Holliday (1851-1887) was a dentist, gambler and some say, a gunfighter in the 1870s-1880. Born in Griffin, Georgia, Holliday became a dentist after graduating from the Pennsylvania College of Dentistry at the age of 21. He contracted tuberculosis at the age of 15, after tending to his mother who was suffering from the disease and in the contagious stage at the time. After his mother's death, he went west, hoping to take advantage of the drier climate and ease his condition. He got as far as St. Louis and worked for a time as a dental assistant, before returning to Georgia, and after getting involved in a fight, headed for Dallas, Texas where he joined another dental practice. As his health declined, which included an increase in coughing spells, so did his dental practice. He then took up gambling as a fulltime occupation, meeting Kate in Fort Griffin, Texas. The date of the tintype is unknown, possibly the late 1870s. They were a volitile combination and arguments between the two often became physical, with each inflicting bodily injury on the other. It's been reported Holliday and Kate parted company shortly before the Tombstone shootout, however, Kate maintained later in life that she had consoled Doc shortly after the encounter with the Clantons & McLaurys on October 26, 1881.In 1887, prematurely gray and badly ailing, Holliday made his way to the Hotel Glenwood, near the hot springs of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. He hoped to take advantage of the reputed curative power of the waters, but the sulfurous fumes from the spring might have done his lungs more harm . He died from tuberculosis than good. Holliday died at 10 a.m. on November 8, 1887. He was 36. Kate Horony later said that she attended to him in his final days, and one contemporary source appears to corroborate her claim.

BIG NOSE KATE
Kate, Born Maria Katalin Horony in Budapest Hungary, she was an off and on prostitute, whose curves were said to be as prominent as her nose. Kate met Doc Holliday in Fort Griffin at John Shanssay's Saloon in 1877, a year before they landed in Eagle Pass while they were on the run after she busted him loose from the custody of the law there where he knifed and killed Ed Bailey in a card game. Over the years Kate was known by many other names including Kate Fisher, Nosey Kate, Mrs. John H. “Doc” Holliday, Kate Melvin, Kate Cummings and Katie Elder. In her later years, having no visible means of support, she was enrolled at the Pioneers’ Home as Mary Katherine Cummings, but she introduced herself to would-be biographers as Mary Katherine Elder. She was already known as “Big Nose” Kate. No matter what the name, she was the longtime paramour of Doc Holliday. She really didn’t start telling her story about her relationship with Holliday and the infamous “Gunfight at the OK Corral” until the early 1930s, 50 years after the shootout and more than 40 years after Doc Holliday’s death. Doc Holliday biographer Dr. Gary Roberts said she was highly motivated. “The image of ‘Big Nose Kate Fisher’ as a troublesome and vindictive whore provided by Wyatt Earp biographer Stuart Lake, in his 1931 biography of Earp entitled “Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal” angered her and she was determined to clean up her sullied reputation. Years later, historians found that much of the Lake biography of Earp proved to be highly fictional. Like many of her other claims, there’s no physical evidence to support—or oral history to directly dispute—Kate’s story except her own oral testimony, much of which is correct. She was not called to testify under oath at the O.K. Corral preliminary hearing. But then again, she was a prostitute, claimed to be married to Doc—and had left town for Globe, about 200 miles northwest.

LOIS GIBSON
Lois Gibson is a forensic artist who is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the most successful and accurate forensic artist ever. Her sketches have helped law enforcement identify more than 751 criminals.Gibson decided to become a forensic artist after being assaulted and nearly killed when she was 21 and living in Los Angeles. She has taught a Center for Public Safety at Northwestern University since 1998. She is the author of the true crime book Faces of Evil with writer Deanie Francis Mills, and wrote a textbook titled Forensic Art Essentials.In 2014, Gibson's work supported the claims of New Mexico educator Ray John DeAragon that a phot that was passed down to him was indeed Billy the Kid. In 2017, Gibson's work supported the claims of a descendant of Jesse James, Sandra Mills, that a tintype photograph she owned showed James sitting next to Bob Ford. A famous WWII photo of a then unknown sailor kissing a surprised nurse at Times Square in New York City remained a mystery for years It was Gibson's forensic analysis that compared the Eisenstaedt photographs with current-day photographs of claimant Glenn McDuffie, analyzing key facial features and measuring the ears, facial bones, hairline, wrist, knuckles, and hand in comparison to enlargements of Eisenstaedt's picture. According to Gibson, "I could tell just in general that yes, it's him. But I wanted to be able to tell other people so I replicated the pose. With the Doc Holliday and Kate Horony tintype, the same process was followed, first finding an authenticated photo, in this case, the only photo authenticated by the Holliday family, one when he had just graduated from dental school in 1872. Transparencies of Holliday’s image in the photo in question, are laid atop the authenticated image and a positive conclusion is attained.The same holds true with Kate, though made easier because there were several photos of her that were available for her to test.
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