MORE ON BENJAMIN BUTLER FERROTYPES

The segment concerning the possibly unique Benjamin Butler ferrotype / calendar medallet intrigued me.

The Matthew Brady clean-shaven so-called "Cooper Union" ferrotype image of Abraham Lincoln / calendar medallet (the catalogue cover plate) circa 1860 campaign sold for an astonishing $38.5K in the Sotheby's June 1999 Captain Andrew Zabriskie auction, a high water mark for Lincolnia. Today, it might bring $25K. It has interestingly not re-surfaced since then.

John Ford's Stack's 2013 part XXIV auction had both a Grant and a Grant / Colfax 1868 campaign ferrotype set in a calendar medallet, ex- Raymond-Boyd. They sold for several $1,000's apiece and were slightly imperfect, per my in-hand examination.

At this August's biannual national APIC in Springfield Illinois, I acquired a possibly unique Benjamin Butler "shellcard" ferrotype, virtually pristine, with a NY merchant advertisement on the reverse. This is only the 2nd Butler ferrotype I'm aware of now. Cost me $1,000 and I immediately turned down $2K. While typing this, I was surprised to find it was lot 10969 in the above Ford sale where I annotated its condition as "Wow!" and it sold for $881. There was so much in that once-in-a-lifetime sale that one could not buy everything of appeal.

Tom Caldwell adds:

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
ELLIS AND READ PERPETUAL CALENDAR MEDALS (http://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n34a12.html)

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