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With Drawings of Cattle Brands on the Texas Frontier.

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:75.00 USD Estimated At:150.00 - 190.00 USD
With Drawings of Cattle Brands on the Texas Frontier.
Portion of printed Mexican "causas criminales" form fashioned into an (incomplete) envelope, postally used, 1850. Attributed to Camargo, (Matamoros), in vicinity of the Rio Grande, between Laredo and McAllen, Texas. 3 1/4 x 5 3/4, torn at right, affecting one of two postal markings. "Domingo Gutierrez" at upper left. Bearing ink drawings of six distinct designs for cattle brands to be used in the Camargo area: Tabasco, stylized Vald(es), and four pictographs, one within manuscript Spanish text. It is judged that the envelope was either torn upon opening, as was common, and then used to draw the brands, or torn by the rancher to pen the drawings, to conserve paper. Two red wax seals. Very fine thus. In the years before Anglo settlement of Texas, Camargo family cattle roamed freely without brands, throughout southern Texas and northern Tamaulipas. Upon arrival of Anglos in the 1850s, the need to brand cattle soon became apparent. A rich literature may be found on the area's early ranching: "Texas' famed longhorn cattle are thought to have originated from Spanish and Mexican stock that ranged north of the Rio Grande. Some interbred with stray Anglo-American cattle from the southern states to produce, by the early 1800s, the true longhorn - lean in carcass, long in horn, and tough enough to thrive in south Texas' rugged environment...The Spanish Colonial ranching traditions still remain strong. They have pervaded our culture and remain in the form of language and music, clothing, saddles, tools, round-ups and rodeos, cattle drives, and the mythic image of the American cowboy"--texasbeyondhistory.net. An unusual Texas-related curiosity, from the nominal birthplace of the American cattle industry.