THE EARL OF PEMBROKE COLLECTION

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V14 2011 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 14, Number 30, July 24, 2011, Article 7

Boy, E-Sylum readers sure are smart. Last week I asked about a book Gene Brandenburg had shown me and let me borrow to discuss in The E-Sylum. Before I had a chance look through it in more detail, answers were pouring into my inbox. Thanks, everyone! -Editor

I want to give some information on the book that was shown at your dinner meeting. It is the British and Scottish portion of the Pembroke collection. I have the book of the complete collection. It is a large heavy book, weighing seven pounds. It was published in 1746. The British portion is about 20% of the book. The rest is ancient coin illustrations. There is very little text.

This is how I obtained this book. I was at an ANA convention in New York in the late 1990's. I was on the bourse floor talking with Phil Carrigan. A man passed by with a large book. I asked him "What is that"? He said it is for sale. I looked at it. Phil saw the ancient coins, and said, "Dave, you wouldn't be interested in that". I said, "If what I think is in this book, IS in this book, I am interested". I found what I was looking for - the first illustrations of coins from America: Pine Tree money, Maryland money, and a Carolina Elephant token. Also illustrated is the famous (rather infamous), Good Samaritan Shilling. The spine of the book was about gone, so I had it rebound in Leather, and it now looks very nice.

It is Part 4 of the engraved plates of the collection of Thomas Herbert (1656-1733), Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, published in 1746. It's of particular interest to collectors of American colonial coins because it contains engraved images of 11 such pieces that were struck and circulated during the earl's lifetime, the earliest such images known except for John Evelyn's 1697 engraving of a St. Patrick farthing. These are on plates 11, 14, 20 and 21.

Read all about it in "The Earl's American Colonials: Ten Honest Coins and One Fantasy," The Colonial Newsletter, August 2001, page 2241. His "fantasy" is the Good Samaritan shilling, described in detail by Eric Newman in "The Secret of the Good Samaritan Shilling" (ANS, Numismatic Notes and Monographs, 1959).

PLATES OF THE ENORMOUS PEMBROKE COLLECTION OF COINS- WITH THE RARE FOURTH PART ILLUSTRATING ENGLISH, SCOTTISH AND AMERICAN COLONIAL COINS WITH THE EVEN RARER INDEX BY JOSEPH AMES.

PEMBROKE. Thomas, Earl of. Numismata Antiqua in tres partes divisa collegit olim et aeri incidi vivens curavit Thomas Pembrochiae et Montis Gomerici Comes. (London) 1746. Thick quarto, finely engraved title page, engraved title to fourth part. 306 engraved plates of coins. Contemporary full vellum, contrasting red and green morocco labels, gilt; red pages edges. An exceptional example, and one of the very best we have seen, with the entire contents, especially the engraved plates, particularly clean and crisp, and free from any browning.

The very rare fourth part, entitled "Nummi Anglici et Scotici cum aliquot Numismatibus recentioribus", is present, and apart from illustrating English and Scottish coins contained in the collection of Lord Pembroke, this final part also contains the earliest-known printed illustrations of American Colonial coins. The rare Index to the Pembrokian Coins and Medals by Joseph Ames, published some years after the main work, comprises 8 pages, including a complex and accomplished woodcut vignette on the final leaf, is also present, and is bound in at the end of the volume. The present work is the only illustrated record of a remarkable and massive collection which was dispersed at auction by Sotheby, London, over three weeks, between 31 July and 19 August 1848, and realised the then enormous sum of £5905.

THE SALE CATALOGUE OF THE PEMBROKE COLLECTION OF COINS. Catalogue of the Entire Pembroke Collection of Greek, Roman, English, Scotch, Irish and Foreign Mediaeval Coins and Medals, As Published in 1746, 4th, under the following Title:- "Numismata Antiqua, in tres partes divisa. Collegit olim et aeri incidi vivens curavit THOMAS PEMBROCHIAE ET MONTES GOMERICA COMES� A.D. MDCCXLVI". Which will be sold at auction by Messrs. S. Leigh Sotheby & Co. Monday 31 July, [1848] and eleven following Days, (Sundays excepted). Octavo, pp. (ii), 326; 1500 lots; ruled in red and priced with buyers' names throughout. Contemporary half calf, red label, gilt, faded; red speckled page edges; marbled boards; slightly scuffed at extremities, inner joint broken; contents clean and fresh.

A particularly attractive example of this important and scarce sale catalogue, and with the benefit of being hand-priced and named throughout.