This unusual RPPC appeals to me for a whole host of reasons-- both immediate and complex, formal and conceptual, starting with what I find to be the striking beauty and evocativeness of the image, which captures a cased museum-type display featuring "the original Bowie knife," told here to have been found on the dead body of pioneer and Texas folk hero James Bowie at the Battle of the Alamo. Based on the text it appears that the display was created by the Alamo Association of Texas, and the narrative (completely clear and easy to read with the help of a magnifier) recounts the passage of the knife from his body to one person to another to another to another before being presented to the Association. A bit of research reveals that the history of the Bowie knife is quite an elusive and contested one, with all sorts of different claims to the "original," which arguably would include the knife Bowie used in the "Vidalia Sandbar Fight," a duel years earlier in the wake of which he became legendary for his knife-wielding prowess. I could write a lot here--about heroes, and contested histories, and storytelling, and museums, and artifacts, and photographic "evidence", etc. but will just let it stand.
3 1/2" x 5 1/2" and in very good condition with one tiny pin hole at top. Very early 20th c. I believe. Unused back.
