The latest additions to the Newman Numismatic Portal are the auction catalogs of numismatic booksellers Kolbe & Fanning. Project Coordinator Len Augsburger provided the
following report. -Editor
Kolbe & Fanning Auction Sale Catalogs on Newman Portal
As previously announced by Kolbe & Fanning, in conjunction with the sale of the George F. Kolbe library on October 26, the firm is making their historic auction sale
catalogs available on Newman Portal. The majority of these have now been posted on Newman Portal, with the remainder coming soon. After a modest beginning in 1976, the firm was
running full tilt by its ninth sale in 1981, which featured consignments from Armand Champa, the estate of Kenneth Lee, and the Essex Institute. Harry W. Bass, Jr. John W. Adams,
Jack Collins and many others competed to drive prices up to record levels, and the pursuit of collecting numismatic literature fully came into its own. The formation of the
Numismatic Bibliomania Society complemented the commercial activity, and since then Kolbe & Fanning have handled many important libraries, including those of Adams, Bass,
Stack's, Ford, and others.
This catalog set as a whole describes over 100,000 items of numismatic literature, and, while there is naturally some lot duplication, it is clear that this represents a
monumental effort, comparable in scope to the ANS library catalog. This copious record has, and will continue, to serve as a premier bibliographic resource for numismatic
literature, with detailed and authoritative descriptions of nearly every important work in the field.
Kolbe and Fanning have catalogued even the most esoteric items with an eye toward putting them into greater context and giving the reader a well-formed idea of their place in
the numismatic universe, often more substantive than might first appear. Some works are by definition more mundane than others, but all are given careful consideration in these
thoughtfully prepared catalogs.
This will be an amazingly useful resource for numismatic bibliophiles and researchers! -Editor
Link to Kolbe & Fanning auction sale catalogs on Newman Portal:
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctioncompanydetail/513111
Link to the George F. Kolbe library sale on October 26, 2019:
https://bid.numislit.com/auctions/1-2AAE6K/the-george-f-kolbe-library-sale-154
Wayne Homren, Editor
The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.
To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor
at this address: whomren@gmail.com
To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum
Copyright © 1998 - 2024 The Numismatic Bibliomania Society (NBS)
All Rights Reserved.
NBS Home Page
Contact the NBS webmaster
|