[Texas]. [African American Photographica]

[Group of Five Early Photographs of African Americans in Texas]

[San Antonio: ca. 1890s to early 1900s]. One tintype, 4 x 2.5 inches, plus four albumen images mounted on cards, between 3.25 x 2.5 inches and 4.25 x 5.5 inches. Mostly moderate wear, small marginal loss to bottom corner of one image, short crack to one mount. About very good. Item #4009

An interesting group of 19th-century and early-20th century images featuring African-American studio subjects in Texas, three of which feature the same subject. The man in these three images is presented in a tintype, a smaller and slightly larger albumen photograph. The largest of these three images is affixed to a studio mount from W.F. Crothers & Co. of San Antonio, Texas, purveyors of "Kodaks, Bicycles and Supplies." In this largest image, the subject appears to be wearing a cowboy hat and work clothes, perhaps indicating he worked as a ranch hand in the San Antonio area. The largest photograph of the five here features an African American man in a group shot with ten women and children. The verso of this photograph includes a pencil annotation reading, "Lee Clay San Antonio R-3 Box 72 12 mi. N.W. S.A." The fifth photograph of the group is unmarked, and features a third African American subject in a suit and hat, in a similar pose to one of the three photographs of the first subject mentioned above, and mounted on the exact same kind of mount. Images of African American subjects from the 19th and early-20th centuries in central and south-central Texas are increasingly rare in the market.

Price: $1,500.00