Who paid nearly $300,000 for a historic Bowie knife?
Posted on 12/28/2002 1:54:30 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Who paid nearly $300,000 for a historic Bowie knife?
A Dallasite - but he's not talking
12/28/2002
When a Dallas businessman paid nearly $300,000 for a historic Bowie knife, it came with Texas-sized bragging rights.
Only there has been no bragging.
Secrecy shrouds the identity of the man who bought the sturdy knife that carved itself into Texas history in 1836. It rode into the Battle of San Jacinto with Gen. Sam Houston, a victory that secured independence for Texas.
After 60 years of display in the San Jacinto Museum in La Porte and a brief visit to the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, the knife was sold in a California auction house last month to an unnamed Dallas man who promised to display it in the Lone Star State.
The buyer's condition of anonymity has stirred speculation about who in Dallas would spend almost $300,000 on the historical keepsake.
Auctioneer John Gangel offers only clues:
"The man is an executive in Dallas. He's somebody in Texas everybody would know," he said. "He doesn't want to make himself popular. He wants Sam Houston to get the publicity, not himself."
The buyer told Mr. Gangel the knife "will never leave Texas while I'm alive, and it better not leave after I'm dead."
Well, he certainly talks like a Texan.
Bowie knives were created by Rezin Bowie and made famous by his swashbuckling brother Jim Bowie, who died in the siege at the Alamo.
The recent sale is not the first time a relic of Texas history has fetched top dollar. In 1998, Tom Hicks, owner of baseball's Texas Rangers and hockey's Dallas Stars, paid $350,000 at auction for a Mexican army officer's diary that includes an account of the Alamo battle. But Mr. Hicks did not buy the knife, according to a spokeswoman in his office.
Former Texas Gov. Bill Clements, a one-time oilfield-supply executive, has a renowned collection of Texana, lives in Dallas and has a name most Texans would recognize, but he says he didn't buy it.
Electronic Data Systems Corp. founder Ross Perot, who paid $1.5 million for one of the original copies of the Magna Carta, said he did not buy the Bowie knife and did not even know it was for sale.
Here's another clue: The man who bought the knife owns a Colt dragoon pistol that Samuel Colt gave to famed frontiersman and Texas Ranger Ben McCullough, Mr. Gangel said.
Records at the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco don't reflect who owns the McCullough Colt, and it has never been offered for display there since record-keeping began in 1984, said Tracie Evans, collections manager.
"This particular gentleman loves the history of the Texas Rangers," Mr. Gangel said. He "is traveling extensively this year and will allow [the knife] to be displayed next year."
But no details have emerged about to which museums the buyer will loan the knife.
Hand-carried
The knife will be hand-carried from California to Texas because the new owner does not want it mailed, Mr. Gangel said.
The auction saw as many as 20 bidders, most placing their bids by telephone. When initial bidding began to ebb, the auctioneer mentioned the top bidder's locale, New York City, which sparked a flurry of bids.
"The pride of Texas was at stake," Mr. Gangel said. "If this was a knife from Iowa, nobody would care."
The knife sold for $297,000, including the auction house fee. Most experts thought the bidding would top out around $65,000. But it quickly soared out of the price range of most history museums and their representatives.
None of the Texas museums that collect such artifacts could afford that price for one item, said Dr. Patrick Nolan, director of the Sam Houston Memorial Museum in Huntsville, which did not bid on the knife. "That's half my budget in a year," he said. "I was absolutely flabbergasted at the amount of money. When I saw that, I said, 'Lordy, that's out of our ballpark.'
"The history museums, frankly, aren't that rich," he said. "None of us have that kind of money. The big museums in Texas are art museums, and they aren't going to bid on a knife owned by Houston. They are going to bid on a painting by Rembrandt."
A representative for the San Jacinto Museum dropped out of the bidding war at about $100,000, officials there said. The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum is a noncollecting museum.
Officials at the San Jacinto Museum said they hope they are on the list to show the knife because it was once an important part of the museum's collection. The museum sponsors re-enactments of the battle and has historical manuscripts and artifacts among its holdings, including a rifle used in battle.
"This is where the battle took place, and the knife was in Sam Houston's possession," said George Donnelly, president of the museum. "This is the rightful historical point where the knife was used."
Although the knife rode into battle with Sam Houston, it is unlikely he used it in the assault, historian James Haley said.
"I doubt Houston ever drew it. I have not seen a reference that he used a Bowie knife in San Jacinto," Mr. Haley said. "Probably much more important to him was the sword which he bequeathed to his son."
Given to a child
Houston was said to have given the knife to a neighbor boy, an act that was very much in his character, Mr. Haley said.
"Houston was constantly giving things away," Mr. Haley said. "That was the very kind of thing he would do."
The boy, Solomon Fisher, was the 10-year-old son of a neighbor. A descendant, E.D. Fisher, loaned the knife to the museum in 1940. When E.D. Fisher died, he bequeathed his belongings to his wife, Thelma. The two had no children.
The museum declined to name the heirs of the knife, saying they asked to remain anonymous. The heirs were identified by two wills, museum president Mr. Donnelly said.
Heirs unaware
The heirs were unaware they owned the knife until the museum conducted an inventory and discovered that it had only been on loan. Texas law required that heirs be notified and asked whether they want to continue the loan, sell it or donate it to the museum as a gift. They decided to sell it.
Other descendants of Solomon Fisher said they did not know who inherited the knife but speculated it was Thelma Fisher's side of the family. Charles Harold Fisher, great-grandson of Solomon Fisher, said some relatives are upset that the knife was sold for profit.
Out for proof
Mr. Fisher said he wants to prove that E.D. Fisher had donated the knife to the museum on behalf of the Fisher family and that it shouldn't have gone to Thelma Fisher's side of the family.
"If there is a case to be made here, and I can get that knife back to the monument [museum], then I would be more than happy to do so," he said.
Meanwhile, questions about the knife's whereabouts and the identity of the new, proud owner remain unanswered.
"He said paying for it wasn't as painful as losing it, and he wouldn't sell it for a million dollars," Mr. Gangel said. "He's a real Texan."
Is this what you're talking about?
Oh no. The Arkansas Toothpick, essentially an oversized double-edged dagger [or undersized variant of the Roman gladius Iberius shortsword] is an outstanding tool as a sentry removal implement [see also the similar if shorter Fairborn Commando knife, with a double-edged taperpoint blade of circa 7 inches] and nearly the ideal tool for the Italian school fencing techniques in which a shorter knife or sword was used in the left or *weak* hand while the primary sword or foil did it's work in the other, allowing patterns of both blocks and killing thrusts in tandem with the other blade, particularly useful against multiple opponents in a day in which firearms were almost always offered but a single shot.
Such use of a Arkansas Toothpick nowadays might be better accompanied by a cane or walkingstick, though some swordcanes offer an interesting possibility.
But the double-edged blade of an Arkie Toothpicker offers too much chance of sticking in bone, particularly the ribs, when used as a thrusting weapon, and the point can be vulnerable to breaking or bending if sideways flex is applied to the blade as a skewered opponent moves or drops unexpectedly. Too, many traditional Toothpick designs offer poor designs of handles or grips, and their blades are a bit light for a hacking stroke, though they'll do nicely to slash with. But you'll find all sorts of knife wound survivors who brag about their collection of scars requiring dozens of stitches to piece them back togather; you don't hear those sorts of claims from those who've taken a thrust through the heart, throat or eye.
The usual Bowie has a little more guard than I care for, but the clip-point blad is both strong and penetrates well with a solid thrust behind it. But my own experience and habits have resulted in my own preference for another older and more traditional cutting implement, whether as tool or weapon, and I've found versions ranging in price from $25 to $2500 to be equally suitable.
Now with one of them in my right hand and your toothpick in my left, I'd be an interesting and difficult opponent for most single adversaries, and against many two or three-person combinations. but I'd bet there were more Arkansaw Toothpicks at the Alamo fight or San Jacinto than Bowies, whether Black or Bowie family originals or copies thereof.
You ever seen the monograph on the use of edged weaponry for self-defense written by Cassius M. Clay of Kentucky? [not the prizefighter, the original 19th-Century plantation owner and statesman from whom the boxer's name was derived]He knew a thing or two about the subject....
Prejudiced on the subject? You bet. Experience offers the data worthy of consideration for judging such comparisons.
Is this what you're talking about?
That's a beautifully crafted modern version, though most of the period fighting tools were a good deal larger and longer- as were the Bowies of that time. Remember, their users were at times going up against mounted Mexican cavalry with sabers.
Nah, He'd be braggin'...and rightfully so. But I have a fair idea, based on the reference to the Ben McCullough Colt Dragoon pistol.
But I'd reckon the REAL holy grail would be any of the three known Bowies recovered from the Alamo, one of which is probably the James Black original. Of course the pair of .36 Colt Paterson revolvers owned by Nathan Bedford Forrest when he arrived in Texas as a youngster might be of particular interest as well....
Important evidence now settles the question of who made that first Bowie knife. “The first Bowie knife was made by myself in the parish of Avoyelles,” wrote Rezin Bowie went on to describe the knife.>
With your cold, high winds in the winter, and extreme heat, compounded by your nasty humidity in the summer, I'm glad your there and not me :o
Texas is nice, but would *never* be in my top 5 choices.
My pride and joy from my collection.
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