?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
(CRIME) Warden's Book, San Quentin, November through December 1917. With approximately 80 photographs on 75 leaves (150 pages), with three pictures per page, primarily men in hats, suspenders, and jackets, as well as one page with three sailors all in row, all convicted of sodomy; each image with accompanying typed text including the convicted person's name, their crime, weight, complexion, distinquishing marks, occupation (including upholsterers, ranchers, chauffers, a painter, laborers, and cooks), and ethnicity or origin, as well as other details regarding their imprisonment (including their terms, some stamped as transfered to Folsom). Oblong folio, 12x17 inches (30.5x43.2 cm.), 1/2 leather over ribbed cloth with a mounted paper title label "San Quentin," and twin-bolt binding, soiled; contents very good. 1917
Each print was sent from the Nevada State Police, and later annotated with details of the convict's crime. Most of the prisoners are well-dressed and approach the photographer with a knowing, if world-weary, expression. Their particular crimes, professions, distinguishing marks, and sentences illuminate aspects of a different historical era. Entries indicate whether someone attended Reform School, had prior convictions, or were transferred to another facility. Many of the sentences are vague, such as "one year to life." Later notations, which appear in red ink, indicate when a convict was released or when he died. Very few women are depicted.
