4.     [ALAMO]. STURDEVANT, E[ugenio] K. (photographer). Untitled photograph of the Alamo (three-quarter view), San Antonio, ca. 1886, cabinet card (albumen print mounted on card stock). Below image in contemporary ink: “‘The Alamo’—San Antonio. Texas. Feb. 5, 1886” [repeated on verso]. Small printed broadside text on verso: The Missions in 1886… The first of the missions in importance to visitors is the Old Alamo…. E.K. Sturdevant, Photographer, 231 E. Houston St., San Antonio, Texas. Image: 10.9 x 18 cm; card: 12.6 x 20.3 cm. Image slightly faded, one tiny chip at lower blank margin of print, light foxing, minor wear to mount edges and corners. Overall very good.

     The view shows the front and right side of the Alamo church with Hugo Grenet’s Alamo store extending on the left out of the view. The details of the columns and windows on the front of the structure are plainly visible. This is the so-called Grenet Repair, done in 1882 and which later became highly controversial. On verso is text describing the battle of the Alamo, the missions, and San Antonio. Photographer Eugenio K. Sturdevant (active in Texas 1886-1891) worked mostly in San Antonio, and later in Seguin and Galveston.

($200-400)

Auction 22 Abstracts