Auction of Billy the Kid-related items in S.F.
Event set Saturday, Sunday at convention center
Billy the Kid, an outlaw, a legend and a New Mexico cottage industry, rides the range still.
Items relating to the Kid will be displayed and auctioned this weekend at the 29th annual Cody Old West Auction and Cody Old West Show at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center.
This is the first time the events have been held in Santa Fe, said event founder and Santa Fe resident Brian Lebel. Estimates for the coming sale total more than $1.4 million.
The original tin sign that hung on the front of the famous Lincoln Saloon in
Lincoln, N.M., will be for sale. It’s shown in photographs from the late 1800s and hung across the street from the Lincoln County Courthouse, where Billy the Kid shot and killed Sheriff Pat Garrett’s deputies while escaping. The Kid had been accused of several murders in the Lincoln County War.
The hand-painted sign is more than 22 feet wide and 9 feet tall when assembled.
Lebel expects it will sell for $8,000 to $12,000.
Also on display will be the knife that Billy the Kid held when Garrett shot and killed him at age 21. Their deadly confrontation occurred on July 14, 1881, at the Maxwell house in Fort Sumner.
Melissa McCracken, Lebel’s wife, said the knife will be auctioned at the next show in Mesa, Ariz., on Jan. 25-26.
As far as the knife’s authenticity, “We have provenance and signed affidavits from the Maxwell family,” McCracken said.
Lebel described the weapon as “a cheap little butcher knife.” The Kid was in a bedroom “and he was carrying the knife because he was on his way to chop some meat in the kitchen” when he was shot and killed, Lebel said.
Why does the outlaw, who was also known as William Bonney, have such persistent appeal in New Mexico and elsewhere?
“I think people have been trying to answer that question for a long time,” Lebel said. “He was just one of those enigmas, and people have never been able to figure out what his story is.”
The Billy mystique is good for business, Lebel said. “It always has been.”
Former Gov. Bill Richardson considered pardoning the Kid for his crimes but decided against it on his final day in office in 2010, citing insufficient facts to support it.
But Richardson’s public announcement that he was weighing whether the Kid deserved a pardon brought a publicity windfall to New Mexico and its tourist-related businesses.
The Cody Old West Show & Auction started in Cody, Wyo. It was held there for 19 years before moving to Denver and then Fort Worth, Texas.
“The auction is best known for having sold the only authenticated tintype of Billy the Kid for a record $2.3 million in June 2011,” Lebel said. He called it “the most expensive antique photo ever sold.”
“People still call about it from all over the world,” he said. “It’s the romance of what people feel the Old West was really about. It’s the classic story of good versus evil, and people have never figured out which side he was on.”
With the auction and show’s initial event here, “hopefully we have found a new home,” Lebel said.
The decision to bring the show to Santa Fe was to create a sense of community, he said. Because of Santa Fe’s artistic and antique pedigree, “we thought the town would be perfect for this.”
Other items in the 290 auction lots of Western fine art, artifacts and collectibles will go on the block for a live audience.
Among those connected to Santa Fe or New Mexico history are a Slim Green Rodeo de Santa Fe parade saddle; items from the collection of former Santo Domingo Gov. Jose Reano; pottery by award-winning Pueblo
artists; and a sculpture by late Santa Fe artist Ernest Badynski.
Green, one of the co-founders of the Rodeo de Santa Fe, made the custom leather-tooled and silver-engraved saddle in the 1950s for fellow rodeo board member L.L. Langle. The saddle was reportedly made in exchange for real estate.
Also featured in the auction are the silver saddle ridden by the Lone Ranger in the original 1950s TV series of the same name; glass art from the television show Have Gun — Will Travel; an Edward H. Bohlin watch fob from the film The Horse Whisperer; and various clothing worn by cowboy stars such as Roy Rogers, Gary Cooper and Buck Jones.
Other items in the 290 auction lots of Western fine art, artifacts and collectibles will go on the block for a live audience.