THE HERITAGE JAMES SMILLIE ARCHIVE SALE

The Heritage currency auction Wednesday night contained material from the personal archives of James Smillie (1807-1885) and his son James D. (1833-1909). The prices realized were beyond strong – they were uniformly double, triple and multiple times high estimate. The highlights were nine scrapbooks of engravings, the most expensive of which realized $60K on a $20-25K estimate (lot 18437). Lot 18434, a book of examples of James Smillie’s work in which I was particularly interested, brought $26K on a $1K-2K estimate.

Also realizing strong prices were vignettes by these and other well-known bank note engravers grouped in lots of ~10-15 by subject matter such as eagles, horses, architectural and military topics.

The Scottish-born James Smillie worked as a bank note engraver for several firms including the National Bank Note Co. and the American Bank Note Co. His son also worked briefly for ABNCo. but was primarily a painter. See Hessler, The Engraver’s Line.

Lot 18441 was a scrapbook kept by Thomas F. Morris that was not part of the archives. It actually sold well below its $4K-6K estimate. I think everyone was shell-shocked and not paying attention (including myself). CAA sold it in 1998 for $4,950 per lot description. I had not targeted this book as a priority (dammit).

Lot 18430: Presentation Book of Large Engraved Scenes From Around the World ca. 1858

Presentation Book of Large Engraved Scenes From Around the World ca. 1858 from the Smillie Archives

Robert Hinshelwood, an engraver and Smillie family member by marriage, presented this book of approximately 100 large architectural and scenery engravings to James D. Smillie in February, 1858. Many are identified on the back including the subject and artists involved. From The Smillie Family Archives

James Smillie's Personal 1850 Scrapbook
Sometimes wonderful things come in humble wrappings. That is certainly the case with this scrapbook, put together by James Smillie beginning in 1850. Although the exterior covers and binding show their age, their condition simply does not matter once you delve into the contents. Smillie kept business cards, labels, carte d'visites, bill heads, stock certificates, bills of exchange, and, yes, even a few bank notes. They all reside inside this one inch thick volume. There are many hundreds of neat paper collectibles that, by in large, are in very nice condition. The glue used to affix them to the pages has not produced any significant damage. Here are a few of the highlights of the contents:

Lot 18437: Book Entitled "Specimens of Bank Note Engraving by Toppan, Carpenter, Casilear & Co.

Book Entitled "Specimens of Bank Note Engraving by Toppan, Carpenter, Casilear & Co." From the James Smillie Archive

This book is beautifully bound in light brown leather with the title in gold. The cover is intact but the spine has worn down to the paper backing. The book has over 75 pages and, at one time, it was full of uncut sheets of obsolete proof notes. Ghost images of many can still be detected on a number of the album pages. For whatever reason, most of these sheets were removed and Smillie repurposed parts of the book to mount die proof vignettes and miscellaneous prints that were of interest to him (some fifty pages). Fortunately for collectors, and for reasons which have been lost to time, seven proof sheets remain along with two pages of world proof notes. Sheets remaining are: