WASHINGTONIA COLLECTOR PAUL MAGRIEL

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V21 2018 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 21, Number 10, March 11, 2018, Article 22

Earlier this week Dave Bowers forwarded a New York Times obituary of Paul Magriel, recalling that he was "a numismatist specializing in Washingtonia."

Dave's memory of Paul Magriel as a Washingtonia collector was quite correct. However, it's not the same Paul Magriel - it's his son. Paul Magriel Jr. of the Times article was "a former youth chess champion who traded game boards to become known as the world's best backgammon player, then turned to poker as his passion for gambling grew..." It's an excellent article and great story (linked below).

But here's what I located on the Newman Numismatic Portal about the senior Magriel, in Joe Levine's Presidential Coin and Antique Company June 1988 Sale #44 of the Paul Magriel collection. (NOTE: there were a couple subsequent catalogs including material from this collection as well). -Editor

The release of the Centennial Edition of Medallic Portraits of Washington, the vastly expanded catalog by Russell Rulau, based on Dr. George Fuld's 1965 reprint of Baker, has set the stage for a triumphant comeback of Washingtonia.

During the quiet years, of course, far-seeing numismatists continued to assemble great collections of Washington pieces, astutely taking advantage of the low prices prevailing in the 1930's and 1940's.

One such collector was Paul Magriel, a Springfield, Massachusetts, native residing in New York City. A very private man, Magriel shunned the spotlight as he went about finding the great rarities for the collection he called in 1956 "the finest in America."

From the earliest medals such as the Voltaire, Manly and Sansom pieces to the Bushnell pieces or unlisted Bicentennial medals and merchants tokens of 1932, Magriel ferreted out the finest wherever they might be found. A number are pieces that have not been seen at public auction in decades, and years may pass before comparable medals appear on the market.

An American Numismatic Association member from 1954 to 1974, Magriel listed his personal specialty as American copper coins, and his profession as a writer on his membership application.

As a numismatist, he first made headlines in his home town by exhibiting the Washington collection at the Springfield Institution for Savings in June 1956. The collection was subsequently exhibited at the Museum of the City of New York in early 1957 and in Washington, D.C.

Magriel's only numismatic article known today is his article "American Icons: George Washington Medals," in Antiques magazine for February, 1957, a brief overview illustrated by eight choice examples from his collection.

Magriel was perhaps more widely known in the larger world of art than in the numismatic community. A former art director for the U.S. Army in World War II, he served on the staff of New York's Museum of Modern Art after the war.

The Magriel Washingtonia offered here and in our next few sales spans many different fields and will be of additional interest to collectors of early merchant tokens. Civil War tokens, So-Called Dollars, Mint Medals and the general field of art medals.

To read the catalog on the Newman Portal, see:
Paul Magriel Collection (https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=511514&AuctionId=511897&page=16)

Magriel died in 1990 at the age of 84 and had his own obituary in the New York Times. Here's an excerpt. -Editor

Paul Magriel, an art collector, connoisseur and former tour guide at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, died yesterday at his home in Manhattan. He was 84 years old.

He was librarian at the American School of Ballet and was later curator of the dance archives at the Museum of Modern Art.

He was an editor of "Dance Index," a magazine started in 1942 dedicated to providing a historical and critical basis for judging dance. He was editor of many books on the subject, including "Chronicles of the American Dance," "Nijinsky," "Isadora Duncan" and "Pavlova."

His collecting interests were wide ranging and included sports in art, American still life, numismatics, watercolors, drawings and sculpture. His collections were exhibited in more than 84 American museums and galleries.

He was considered an authority on Italian Renaissance bronzes, and he had an impressive collection of watercolors and pastels, particularly those of 19th-century painters, including Sargent, Chase and John LaFarge.

To read about the chess/backgammon/poker-playing Paul David Magriel Jr., see:
Paul Magriel, Who Was Called the Best in Backgammon, Dies at 71 (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/obituaries/paul-magriel-who-was-called-the-best-in-backgammon-dies-at-71.html)