Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Doc Holliday's Battery Charger?

January 16, 2013
   So I'm working on Doc Holliday's Last Gunfight, which took place in Hyman's Saloon in Leadville, Colorado in 1884. The esteemed author Gary Roberts, who is the foremost authority on all things Holliday, graciously sent me a photo of the inside and outside of Hyman's Saloon for me to do my artwork from. I believe both photos are courtesy of the Denver Public Library and we are getting clearance for them for the magazine, but in the meantime, at the risk of copyright infringement, I want to draw your attention to something in the photo that kind of blows my mind. Here is the complete photo:





Great photo, love the old style, thick glass with the distorted reflections (which is worth a painting in itself), but check out the clock on the pole, in the foreground. What is that sitting at the foot of it?





Is that an electrical box of some kind? Looks like a battery charger, no? 1884? Could it be? What the hell?

"This is funny."
—Doc Holliday