Mauseus, thank you much!! I've added a note to my auction biblio. Do you happen to know if anyone has digitized that
Spink Numismatic Circular & made it available online? (The really old ones usually are, but I usually have trouble finding newer ones...)
That was a splendid collection of
Severan denarii and a great
catalog. I love how the photos are arranged vertically (
obverse above
reverse) so that you can see the
portraits all lined up next to each other for comparison. John
Spring includes an extended bio of Arnold (excerpt from "
The Times" (
London?)) and a photo with
his dog & rifle (
Ancient Coin Auction Catalogues, 2009: pp. 94-95).
A couple of other things I find interesting: Seaby/Sear used many of those coins to illustrate
Roman Silver Coins and Their Values, especially the Severans, but also from the 1969 sale. As the
Numiswiki article mentions ("
Important Collection Auctions"
[LINK]),
his broader collection of Roman
denarii had been sold 15 years earlier by Glendining. I don't know why the delay, if he kept collecting during those 15 years, or if there were any other smaller sales...
For anyone interested, here are my annotations on those sales (now including the comment from this post), and notes on some bibliographies that mention them:
https://archive.org/details/catalogueofcolle00glen_70/
17 June 1969 = … Roman silver coins ([Pompey the Great] to Clodius Albinus)… G. R. Arnold [Robert Arnold], Esq. [...] =
711 lots, many ill. on 9 Pl. (RRC: ~1 Pl.; RIC: ~8 Pl.; ~27 coins per, plus enlargement pl.; all AR Denarii).
[Clain-Stefanelli 4070; Spring 247; Manville 29; Numiswiki "Important".]
See also Part II (Severan, Glendining, 21 Nov 1984 [LINK]), very important collection, catalogued by Simon Bendall & illustrated by Frank Purvey, with a few paragraphs introduction (not as thorough as Part II), mostly single lots cataloged according to Cohen, no weights (like Part II), but fewer prior provenances given (still some) than part II, at least some of the coins (perhaps many?) would be published in Seaby Roman Silver Coins and Their Values (and remain illustrated in Sear’s editions) but not mentioned here;
https://archive.org/details/grarnoldcollecti00glen
21 November 1984 (with B.A. Seaby [with PRL]) = G.R. Arnold Collection of silver coins of the Severan Dynasty [part 2, see Glendining 17 Jun 1969 for part 1] =
322 lots, some groups, one coin per lot ill. on 14 Pl. (plus 2 pl. enlargements).
[Kroh p. 81 (4 Stars, "belongs in everyone's library"); Numiswiki "Important"; Esty "Catalogs" [LINK]; Spring --, but this sale mentioned on p. 93 (under 247) & bio on pp. 94-95.]
Text by Gavin Menton & photos by Frank Purvey (both of Seaby, F.P. took photos for RSC III & IV). An important collection of Severan AR – perhaps half are plate coins in Seaby Roman Silver Coins and Their Values vol III, many coins with important prior provenances as well, no weights or diameters, but a splendid, scholarly catalog with intro essay on collector/collection, frequent notes on single coins and paragraphs introducing different sections;
SEE ALSO: “Spink Numismatic Circular March 1985 as it lists 46 coins from the collection and illustrates 30 of them. Some of these may not be illustrated in the original Glendining sale and so is important in confirming provenance.” [Mauseus, FAC 130755 (24 Feb 2023)]
