The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 17, April 24, 2005, Article 11

STAUFFER-FIELDING WORK ON ENGRAVERS

Larry Mitchell writes: "I've had a number of inquiries lately
regarding sources of biographical information for engravers,
diesinkers, etc., for early American coinage, medals, etc.
The standard reference for this sort of info has long been
Stauffer, Fielding & Gage's "American Engravers Upon
Copper & Steel".

Accordingly, it might be worthwhile to add the
bibliographic info for this title to our NBS
Bibliography, Section 1, _General Information for
Bibliophiles_ (the same folks also having done the
illustrations for a wide range of early numismatic
books and magazines):

Stauffer, David McNeely, Mantle Fielding and Thomas
Hovey Gage. AMERICAN ENGRAVERS UPON COPPER AND STEEL.
(Four volumes in three.) New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll
Books, 1994.

Quoting from the publisher's description of the above
consolidated reprint:

"In 1907 David McNeely Stauffer's two-volume set of
AMERICAN ENGRAVERS UPON COPPER AND STEEL
was published in a limited edition of 350 copies. This pioneer
work provided biographical sketches and a checklist of the
works of over seven hundred American engravers. Little
had previously been written about this subject, as the great
majority of early American engravers were relatively obscure
men and often the only record of their existence as engravers
was the few impressions of a plate accidentally preserved.
Stauffer's work was based on the prints themselves - their
signatures, dates and publishers - and he realized there were
omissions. In 1917 Mantle Fielding, who had corresponded
with Stauffer and seen many of his notes, published a
supplement in a numbered, limited edition of 220 copies.
Stauffer's and Fielding's works on American Engravers are
well indexed for engravers and partly indexed for subjects.
However, engravers are for the most part only copyists; they
reproduce on copper, steel or stone the work of another. Much
valuable information as to the identity of the painters of early
portraits can be obtained from examining engraved copies.
Thus in 1920 Thomas Hovey Gage added an Artist Index to
these important volumes. This reprint is the first time these
four scarce volumes have appeared together as a set...."

[We've updated the NBS web site bibliography to include
the Stauffer-Fielding work.

Dick Johnson's work will become the new standard
once published, but in the meantime the Stauffer-Fielding
work is probably the best single source for this information.
A more compact work is the 1983 book by Francis
Pessolano-Filos, "The Venus Numismatics Dictionary of
Designers, Artists, Modellers, Engravers, and Die Sinkers
whose works were commissioned by or struck by the
United States Mint 1792-1977." -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

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