BUILDING THE LILLY COLLECTION, CONTINUED

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V20 2017 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 20, Number 1, January 2, 2017, Article 20

In a series of recent blog posts, Harvey Stack wrote about his family's role in helping form the Josiah K. Lilly Collection. Here are excerpts from the latest installments (#16 and #17). -Editor

Lead Soldiers
The most outstanding collection he built (although not as valuable as some of his other accumulations) was his collection of lead soldiers.

Mr. Lilly traced American military units from the era of the Green Mountain Boys (pre-revolutionary) up to World War I. He was interested in the uniforms each company or regiment wore and researched their dress. He had small groupings of five to seven of each company, cast to order by the foremost artist of military dress who worked in Philadelphia and confirmed along with Mr. Lilly the actual uniforms for each grouping. Once they were cast, each was hand painted. A group would include a Captain, the officer under him, a foot soldier, a drummer, and a flag bearer. Sometimes they would add the bugler or major officer as appropriate. The total number of lead soldiers on display was approximately 5,000. Regiments from the different states varied from each other, especially during the Civil War. The North wore blue but the ornamentation varied, making the uniforms and decorations different yet similar. The South wore gray and their uniforms also differed from regiment to regiment, state to state. With several hundred different regiments coming to battle from both sides, each from the locality of town, city, and state, the uniforms, though the same basic color for each side, differed. Therefore, Mr. Lilly, being a true collector, wanted them all to be correct, so he studied the designs of each set and the caster of the lead soldiers followed through. He also had examples of the Navy and Marines of each period , with distinctive uniforms of their own. Hence, 5,000 soldiers, lead soldiers on display!

Visiting with Mr. Lilly at Eagle's Nest and seeing his collections confirmed to me how a dedicated collector approaches his hobbies. Mr. Lilly’s approach was simple: assemble the best you can, set your goals, get the knowledge you need and take advantage of the experience and expertise of others. The result is then a fine, well-built collection that can someday be passed on to family members, an institution of learning, or be sold at auction by a reputable auction house, perhaps a firm that assisted in building the collections.

To me, Mr. Josiah K. Lilly was a man with a purpose, who made himself remembered in numismatics, philately, and the collecting of rare book and documents, early colonial rifles, great pieces of art and statuary, and left a legacy for the future to study and enjoy. In my next article I will continue with the story of J.K. Lilly's amazing collection and how Stack’s continued to serve him.

Closing In On Completing the U.S. Gold
In the fall of 1958 we had our customary visit from Mr. Lilly and we showed him some of our recent acquisitions for his growing collection. He had been studying other collections and what made each of them important and desirable. He wanted us to tell him more about the Louis E. Eliasberg Collection which the Stack family played an important role in building in the early 1940s when we were able to obtain the Clapp Collection for this important collector.

With Mr. Eliasberg we negotiated to acquire an almost complete collection of United States gold, silver and copper, along with a wonderful group of foreign gold coins. The combination of what Mr. Eliasberg already owned and the Clapp Collection resulted in a very important collection and the Stack family was pleased to be a supplier of new and upgrade coins as well as helping to set aside the duplicates for future trading and possible sale. Louis E. Eliasberg was collecting at the right time and he was able to get a great start on his unparalleled cabinet.

Mr. Lilly commented about this: "I guess this does not happen often. It was fortunate for me that I was able to purchase the U.S. gold coin collections you found for me in 1954 and 1955.” We once again marveled at how far he was able to get with his collecting because of these advantageous acquisitions from the Anderson Dupont, Weihman and Schermerhorn collections. “I guess I was in the right place at the right time,” he said.

He then noted that he still needed two U.S gold coins to complete the collection. One was the unique 1870-S $3 gold piece (which Louis Eliasberg owned). Mr. Lilly noted: “I guess I have to wait till he either sells his collection or until he passes on. Since we are close the same age, I will try to wait." All this was said with a warm smile on Mr. Lilly's face.

He continued: “But I do have a chance on getting the 1822 half eagle. You told me there are only three examples: the one in the Smithsonian, the Eliasberg specimen, and the one in the Carter Family Collection, which is vast, but not as complete as the one you built for me!"

Mr. Lilly mentioned that members of the Stack family had approached Amon, Jr., over the past four years but he hadn't wanted to sell it. He asked us to keep trying, as he was excited to be just one coin away from a complete collection of U.S. gold.