The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 43, October 27, 2002, Article 4

NUMISMATIC WRITER CHARLES DE KAY.

  Dick Johnson writes: "The ancient coin book mentioned in last
  week's E-Sylum "purchased from C. de Kay /1885 / Augustus
  St Gaudens (signed)" also reveals the interests of the seller as
  well as buyer St-Gaudens.  Charles de Kay is known to
  medal collectors as the co-founder of the Circle of Friends of
  the Medallion (1909-1915).

  Charles de Kay (who also wrote under the pseudonym Henry
  Eckford) was a newspaper writer who wrote the text for the
  12 books that contained medals inserted in thick diecut pages
  bound in. Devoid of facts, de Kay's text was all fluff (like he
  was being paid by the inch and was really padding it, perhaps
  like his newspaper columns).

  He was a longtime art critic for the New York Times and
  socialized in the New York artsy crowd (many of which were
  prominent or wealthy or both who he strong-armed into
  joining the Circle of Friends, 554 members by 1911!). He
  was colorful enough to deserve today a Pete Smith
  biography in The Numismatist, or an Ed Rochette expose
  column.

  The other co-founder of the Circle was Robert Hewitt Jr,
  also well-known to numismatists as a collector of Lincolniana
  and whose collection (which at one time occupied an entire
  room in his home) ended up at the Smithsonian."

  [A web search uncovered a couple examples of de Kay's
   writing. -Editor

  An article in Century Magazine Vol. VII, January 1887,
  under the name Henry Eckford: "Fencing and the New
  York Fencers"
  http://www.westsidefencing.com/1887text.html

  Charles de Kay's 1890 article on artist Albert Pinkham
  Ryder (also written under the pseudonym Henry Eckford)
  appears in the June issue of the Century Magazine:
  http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/7788/RYDER_04timeline.html
  ]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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