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Tombstone Western Heritage Museum Auction: The Earp Brothers & Cowboys

Sat, Jul 26, 2025 11:00AM EDT
  2025-07-26 11:00:00 2025-07-26 11:00:00 America/New_York North American Auction Company North American Auction Company : Tombstone Western Heritage Museum Auction: The Earp Brothers & Cowboys https://live.naabid.com/auctions/north-american-auction/tombstone-western-heritage-museum-auction-the-earp-brothers-cowboys-20021
Join North American Auction Company on July 26th for a once-in-a-lifetime auction of the Tombstone Western Heritage Museum Collection. This extraordinary sale features the largest private collection of Tombstone history, including rare and historic pieces tied to Wyatt Earp, the Earp Brothers, and the infamous Cochise Cowboys. From original artifacts, outlaw relics, and the largest collection of C.S. Fly photographs, this is a can’t-miss event for collectors of the Old West’s most legendary chapter.
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Lot 243

19th C. Tombstone Levis Strauss & Co. Duck Pants

Estimate: $6,000 - $10,000
Starting Bid
$1,000

Bid Increments

Price Bid Increment
$0 $5
$50 $10
$100 $25
$500 $50
$1,000 $100
$2,000 $250
$5,000 $500
$10,000 $1,000
$25,000 $2,500
$100,000 $5,000
This is an original set of 19th-century Levi Strauss San Francisco, California canvas miners pants / duck pants from a Tombstone mine, recovered in early attic in Tombstone from the Tombstone Western Heritage Museum collection. The pants have been identified as 1870-1880 Levi Strauss & Company duck pants, showing the correct design, Levi Strauss’s Pat. May 1873 LS & Co. SF rivet, correct sewing on single back pocket, label location, etc. Levi Strauss & Co. was formed in San Francisco in 1853 by German-born immigrant Levi Strauss, who established a wholesale dry goods business to serve small retailers throughout the American West. The brand is well-known for its distinctive denim jeans, including the "501" style, as well as its work wear inventions. The company was granted a patent for the use of copper rivets on work pants, a design element that ultimately became synonymous with Levi's jeans. The company has grown tremendously over the years, becoming a global brand with multiple product lines and brands, including Dockers and Levi Strauss Signature. These were found in an attic of an old house in Tombstone, Arizona and were presumably used in various mines in the Tombstone area. Levi Strauss & Co. duck pants, made with a heavy-duty cotton fabric called duck canvas, were an early form of the company's workwear, alongside blue jeans. While blue denim eventually became the standard for their iconic jeans, duck canvas was used for riveted waist overalls, particularly popular with miners and other workers needing durable pants. These pants show a torn and worn off tag sitting on the waist band on the back of the pants. It is unreadable but is consistent with Levi's Strauss & Co. duck pants. Another large indicator is a marked copper rivet on the interior of the waist band. The rivet is marked reading, "Pat. May 1873 LS & Co SF" and was originally an invention that was granted a patent to a tailor called Jacob Davis and his cloth supplier Levi Strauss. Jacob came up with the concept of utilizing copper rivets to improve the pants' weak points. He finished the reinforced pants and moved on to the next project, but word spread about the durable workwear with riveted reinforcements, and Jacob received an increasing number of requests for the work pants. He contacted his fabric supplier, a man named Levi Strauss from San Francisco, and on May 20, 1873, their patent was authorized, and they began producing riveted labor pants under the brand name Levi's Strauss. The early versions of the rivets were marked with the text "Pat May 1873 LS & Co SF", but was changed to "LS & Co SF" in the late 1890s / early 1900s. These pants show large amounts of wear and stains throughout, with one pant leg torn apart in the bottom 1/4 of the pant leg. No buttons are present on the pants. They measure 41 1/2" L x 16 1/4" W and weigh 1 pound and 10 ounces. Provenance: From the Tombstone Western Heritage Museum in Tombstone, Arizona. The pants date to the third-to-fourth quarter of the 1800's. Has a portion of the end of the leg present in the back pocket and shown in the pictures. One of, if not the only set of Levi Strauss miner's pants documented from Tombstone, Arizona Territory. M69

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