The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 23, June 5, 2005, Article 20

THE ROBSON LOWE VATTEMARE SALES

An anonymous subscriber writes: "Last week's E-Sylum had
the following passage as part of a submission from Robert J.
Galliette:

'Documents from the original Vattemare collection were sold
by Robson Lowe / Christie's on April 1, 1982 (Part I) and on
September 17, 1982 (Part II) as smaller segments to the firm's
stamp auctions on these dates. Both sales therefore were
outside the mainstream of numismatic and currency auctions,
and this literature accordingly is difficult to locate. Even the
ANA Library recently reported having only one of these two
catalogs. Does anyone know of a source for them? I'd
appreciate any related advice.'

I attended the second of these sales. I believe there are a few
errors in Mr. Galliette's commentary at least in regard to the
second sale (and possibly the first as well). To begin with,
Mr. Galliette seems to imply that the Vattemare material
appeared in sales that were primarily philatelic. The September
17, 1982 catalog with the Vattemare material was not a stamp
sale. It consisted entirely of the Vattemare material and a
collection of Federal paper money. The consignor of the
Federal paper money (an estate) had also consigned a sizable
stamp collection, which as I remember, was listed in a separate
Robson Lowe catalog. I would assume this was done purposely
so that the two catalogs could be sent to different mailing lists.

Mr. Galliette states: "Both sales therefore were outside the
mainstream of numismatic and currency auctions". The
September 17, 1982 sale was definitely in the mainstream of
currency auctions. Robson Lowe had provided virtually zero
lead time for advertising this sale. The only ad I can recall
seeing for the sale appeared in the Bank Note Reporter issue
that arrived on Wednesday September 15th. Despite this,
the currency dealer community had been aware of the sale
for months. It was a hot topic of conversation at both the
International Paper Money Show (Memphis) in June and
the ANA convention in Boston. At the sale, it seemed that
all of the major paper money dealers of the era were in the
room. Some people speculated that the dealers thought it
was going to be a poorly attended sale that would provide
a "bottom fishing" opportunity. It turned out to be just the
opposite.

Since Robson Lowe was primarily a philatelic auctioneer,
their mailing list for numismatics was probably very paltry.
I suspect the reason these catalogs are "difficult to locate" is
because most of the them were mailed to people who called
up and requested them. I doubt if these catalogs are really
rare. I suspect that they are just modern day anomalies
because they didn't get the sort of distribution that a major
numismatic auctioneer would have provided. Perhaps I'm
naive, but I've always assumed that the ANA library does
not make an effort to get catalogs of this sort. If they did,
they would certainly have these two, as it was no secret
that Robson Lowe was conducting sales of this sort in the
early 1980's. I've always thought that the ANA library
relies on goodwill and donations to stock their shelves.
Am I incorrect in that? If Mr. Galliette is looking to purchase
these catalogs, I'm sure that with a little patience and the help
of Messrs. Kolbe, Lake, and Davis, he will ultimately be
successful."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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