Nov 21 at 12:00 PM - Sale 2687 -
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Sale 2687 - Lot 1

Estimate: $ 1,200 - $ 1,800
(AGRICULTURE.) Kansas City Fat Stock Show. Lithograph, 22 x 27 inches, with all lettering at bottom added in pencil; faint staining, laid down and stabilized on modern paper. Kansas City, MO, 1 November 1883
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Something we can all aspire to: "Best Dressed Carcass."

An unusually attractive award certificate from an agricultural fair. The main lithograph depicts four heads of very well-fed cattle in a pasture. It appears to have been drawn on stone as a blank piece without text, although we can find no other examples of the image. The bold text in the upper left appears to have been overprinted for use as a premium award certificate at the Kansas City Fat Stock Show, launched that year to compete with a similar annual fair in Chicago. The text at bottom is added in pencil for issue to a very successful fair entrant, listing "Premiums Awararded [sic] to Hazel Dell Stock Farm, W.H. Fulkerson, Jerseyville Illinois," followed by a list of their four awards, for "Best Thoroughbred Short-Horn Steer, 2 Years Old"; "Best Carcass of Steer, Spayed or Barren Heifer 2 Years Old"; "Best Carcass of Steer of Any Age"; and the "Grand Sweep Stakes": "Best Dressed Carcass Steer or Cow, Any Age or Breed," earning a premium of $100.

The award winner, William H. Fulkerson, had an eventful life as a Pony Express rider and Confederate colonel before establishing the renowned Hazel Dell Stock Farm in southern Illinois. His nephew Charles Russell, the famed western artist, was a regular visitor. The farm survives today, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

With--4 silk ribbons, each reading "Kansas City Fat Stock Show," each about 2 x 13 inches.

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