KOLBE/FANNING NUMISMATIC LITERATURE SALES #117, #118

During September of this year, Kolbe & Fanning Numismatic Booksellers will conduct two notable auction sales. The first, closing on September 12th, 2010, is comprised of the collection of early printed numismatic books formed by the late Anders Frösell of Sweden. Forty-eight works are featured, dating from the early 1500s to the late 1700s, with over half dated before 1600. Condition covers the spectrum, allowing numismatists on modest budgets the infrequent opportunity to add a work to their libraries dating from the cradle period of numismatic printing.

The roster of famous early numismatic authors represented in the sale includes Father Augustín, Anselmo Banduri, Guillaume du Choul, Sebastian Erizzo, Hubert Goltz, Johann Huttich, Adolph Occo, Fulvio Orsini, Onuphrio Panvinio, Charles Patin, Guillaume Rouille, Johann Sambucus, Ezechiel Spanheim, Jacob de Strada, Gabriel Simeoni, Jean Foy-Vaillant, Aenea Vico and others.

The second sale, closing four days later, on September 16th, features the outstanding and extensive numismatic library formed by the well-known ancient coin dealer, auctioneer and numismatic photographer Robert J. Myers. Devoted to works on ancient coins, art and antiquities, the 108-page catalogue of the Myers library features over 1300 lots. It is comprehensive in its coverage of ancient Greek numismatics, and also features a wealth of important reference books on Roman coins and ancient art.

Included among the truly important and often quite rare works in the Myers library are: a set of the Numismatic Chronicle, largely complete from 1881 to 2009; an attractive set of Mionnet's sixteen volume 1806-37 classic Médailles Antiques, Grecques et Romaines; many rarely offered numismatic excavation reports, among them all of the Olynthus volumes featuring coins (and virtually all of the other volumes in that series), including a fine example of Robinson and Clement's The Chalcidic Mint; a fine original set of the famous Jameson collection; original sets of the McClean, Hunterian and Weber collections; a comprehensive collection of Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum volumes; seldom encountered classic die studies such as Herzfelder on Rhegium, Ravel's Vlasto on Tarentum, Regling on Terina, Boehringer on Syracuse, Calciati on Sicily, Imhoof-Blumer's Antiken Nord-Griechenlands, May on Ainos, Calciati's Pegasi on Corinth, Ravel on Corinth, Svoronos on Athens, Seltman on Olympia, Le Rider and Svoronos on Crete, Waddington on Asia Minor, Cahn on Knidos, Lederer on Nagidos, Naville on Cyrene and Svoronos on the Ptolemies.

Classic works on Roman coins include Mazzini and Robertson on the Hunter collection; a complete set of the series by Bastien and others of Numismatique Romaine; C.H.V. Sutherland's set of Alföldi on contorniates; Burnett on Roman Provincials; and a fine original Dattari. The extensive selection of auction catalogues featuring ancient coins is perhaps highlighted by the first twelve fixed price and auction sale catalogues issued by Jacob Hirsch, one of the most notable ancient coin dealers of all time. All are Hirsh's unique annotated sales copies, generally recording information about the coins in the sales and the collectors who acquired them that may be found nowhere else.

Among other key auctions catalogues in the sale are all of Hirsch's Ars Classica sales devoted to ancient coins; his other key ancient coin and medal sales, including Rhousopoulos, Weber I & II, and Löbbecke on medals; a nearly complete set of Leu ancient coin sales, 1971-2009; and classic sales by Cahn, Egger, Florange, Ciani, Hamburger, Helbing, Adolph Hess, Münzhandlung Basel, Santamaria, Sotheby's and many others.

The sale even features a few works of interest to collectors of American coins, among them the famous 1746 series of plates depicting the monumental collection formed by Thomas Pembroke, which features the first printed illustrations of American colonial coins. Another volume in the sale, a Sammelband found in the section of works on medals, features the famous essay by Rev. Henry Christmas on Copper Coinage of the British Colonies in America. Also bound in this rather fascinating volume is Aquila Smith's rare tract on Irish tradesmen's tokens and Richard Sainthill's Defence of the British School of Medal Engravings.

Also included is a nice collection of standard works on historical medals and selected titles on medieval and early modern coins. The sale concludes with three coin cabinets.

Among the wealth of classic and standard works on the art, archaeology, antiquities and history of the ancient world featured in the sale, to name but a few, are: a significant run of Antike Kunst; most of Princeton's volumes on the Athenian Agora and, as previously noted, the Olynthus series spearheaded by David M. Robinson; two early 19th-century volumes of engravings of important antiquities in the Museo Reale Borbonico collection; Furtwängler's 1895 Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture, one of 50 on vellum; Stuart Jones's very rare original two-volume work on ancient sculptures in the Museo Capitolino collection; Gisela Richter's 1965 three-volume Portraits of the Greeks; Beazley's 1954-63 Attic Vase Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Trendall on the vases of Lucania, Campania and Sicily with all three supplements; Trendall and Cambitoglou's 1978-82 work on Apulia; fifty-eight volumes in the Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum series; and classic works on cylinder seals and gemstones, including works written by Brandt, Eisen, Osten, Richter, Vollenreider, Zwierlein-Diehl and others. A Handsome, 17th-century “subscription copy” of John Dryden's Works of Virgil published by Jacob Tonson may also be found among the well over 300 lots to be found in this section of the catalogue.

Printed catalogues of both sales may be obtained by sending $25 to: KOLBE & FANNING LLC, NUMISMATIC BOOKSELLERS, 141 W JOHNSTOWN ROAD, GAHANNA OH 43230-2700.

The catalogues are also accessible free of charge on the Kolbe & Fanning website at www.numislit.com. Present only there are color illustrations of all of the antiquarian works in the Frösell library.

On November 18, the firm will be conducting mail-bid Auction Sale 119, for which consignments are still being accepted. On January 8, 2011, Kolbe & Fanning will be holding a public auction at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in conjunction with the New York International Numismatic Convention. Select consignments of important numismatic works are currently being solicited for this sale. Queries may be directed to David F. Fanning at df@numislit.com, (614) 414-0855, or to George F. Kolbe at gfk@numislit.com, (909) 338-6527. Kolbe & Fanning will also have a bourse table at the upcoming ANA convention in Boston and both look forward to visiting with old friends and meeting new ones.

Wayne Homren, Editor

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