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Author Topic: Greek Coins and Their Parent Cities  (Read 1951 times)

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Offline Jaimelai

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Greek Coins and Their Parent Cities
« on: June 22, 2011, 07:39:34 pm »
I just received an original copy of "Greek Coins and Their Parent Cities" by John Ward 1902.  The first half of the book is a catalogue of the author's collection made by G.F. Hill of the British Museum.  Nearly all of his coins are pictured in beautiful "autotype" and described in the BMC format with the added bonus of the weights given in grammes (in addition to grains) and diameters given in mm instead of inches.  The second part of the book, which is entitled "Imaginary Rambles in Hellenic Lands", is very interesting collection of the author's comments on all things Greek with references to his coins arranged in a travel guide format.  A very cool book!   I got this discarded library copy from an eBay used book dealer and while the book is also available online http://www.archive.org/details/greekcoinstheirp00warduoft, it is a totally different experience to actually have a copy in hand.   :)

Any additional information on John Ward would be much appreciated!




Offline curtislclay

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Re: Greek Coins and Their Parent Cities
« Reply #1 on: June 22, 2011, 08:27:20 pm »
Ward's collection was purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, who subsequently bequeathed it to the Metropolitan Museum. The Met in turn dispersed most of the collection through Sotheby at Zurich, 4-5 April 1973, "Greek Coins from the John Ward Collection".

The preface to that catalogue includes a biographical note on John Ward: born in Belfast in 1832, entered the family stationery and lithographic business, after retirement in 1899 traveled extensively and published books on Egyptian antiquities and his own Greek coin collection, illustrated with his own accomplished drawings. Died in 1912, buried in Holywood, which I believe is the home town of the recent winner of the US Open (golf), Rory McIlroy.

If I'm not mistaken the Met's Ward sale and the sale of their Roman gold coins in 1972 supplied the Museum with the funds necessary to purchase the famous Euphronios krater, which however had been looted from an Etruscan tomb and so the Museum had to return it to Italy in 2008! So in essence the Museum threw away its excellent coin collection and today has nothing to show for it.
Curtis Clay

Offline Jaimelai

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Re: Greek Coins and Their Parent Cities
« Reply #2 on: June 22, 2011, 09:05:44 pm »
Thanks for the information Curtis!  Several ironies in that story, that's for sure.  The book is written from a strong British-centric point of view and I just read a section where he is commenting that Greek coins are getting harder to obtain (even at very high prices) with many coins moving from private collections to public museums and that yet another large collection "regretfully" left the British shores for a museum in Boston (the Canon Greenwell Collection).   

Offline Andrew McCabe

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Re: Greek Coins and Their Parent Cities
« Reply #3 on: June 23, 2011, 05:14:28 am »
Ward's collection was purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, who subsequently bequeathed it to the Metropolitan Museum. The Met in turn dispersed most of the collection through Sotheby at Zurich, 4-5 April 1973, "Greek Coins from the John Ward Collection".

If I'm not mistaken the Met's Ward sale and the sale of their Roman gold coins in 1972 supplied the Museum with the funds necessary to purchase the famous Euphronios krater, which however had been looted from an Etruscan tomb and so the Museum had to return it to Italy in 2008! So in essence the Museum threw away its excellent coin collection and today has nothing to show for it.

That's my understanding too. What makes me more angry is that no-one outside us numismatists anymore cares about these national treasures having been discarded. There's many mutterings about the misguided purchase and then the loss of Euphronios but no inquisition into throwing away a marvellous collection of tiny Greek sculptures in the round.

The book looks really marvellous, judging by its google books version, excellent illustrations on virtually every page. I just found an original (hidden among many print-to-order) on Abebooks for $85 and have ordered it. Great! I also, within the last minutes bought Mattingly's "The Man in the Roman Street" based on a recommendation on a parallel thread. They should make a nice pair to read. All such recommendations always welcome!

Offline Andrew McCabe

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Re: Greek Coins and Their Parent Cities
« Reply #4 on: June 23, 2011, 05:45:04 am »
That's my understanding too. What makes me more angry is that no-one outside us numismatists anymore cares about these national treasures having been discarded. There's many mutterings about the misguided purchase and then the loss of Euphronios but no inquisition into throwing away a marvellous collection of tiny Greek sculptures in the round.


Searching for more information I stumbled upon http://clancco-theartdeaccessioningblog.blogspot.com

Here is the mood on the street:

An editorial from Schenectady's Daily Gazette.
There’s no telling what the state Senate will do if and when it returns to action, but one thing it should not do is pass a bill that would interfere with art museums’ right to sell works in their collections to generate operating capital.

Museums Voice Opposition to New York’s Anti-Deaccessioning Law By Artifactum / Jennifer Unruh
Major New York art organizations are reportedly uniting in opposition to the state’s proposed legislation on regulating the practice of deaccessioning artwork ... which would prevent to use of revenue gained from artwork sales to be used for “operating expenses.”


So the consensus, from the voice in the street to the museums themselves, let's sell all the stuff we don't like too much and use it to pay for hors d'oeuvres and limo rides home for the director's weekly parties.

Here, is the British Museum's policy: a very different tone:

Objects vested in the Trustees as part of the Collection of the Museum shall not be disposed of by them otherwise than as provided by the British Museum Act 1963. Therefore the Trustees’ power to de-accession objects from the Collection is limited and there is a strong legal presumption against it. Decisions to dispose of objects comprised within the Collection cannot be made with the principal aim of generating funds though any eventual proceeds from such disposal must be used to add to the collection. The Trustees do not have the power to sell, exchange, give away or otherwise dispose of any object vested in them and comprised in the Collection3 unless
(a) the object is a duplicate of another object held in the collection,or
(b) in the opinion of the Trustees the object is unfit to be retained in the Collection and can be disposed of without detriment to the interests of the public or scholars;or
(c) it has become useless for the purposes of the Museum by reason of damage, physical deterioration, or infestation by destructive organisms.

Offline Jaimelai

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Re: Greek Coins and Their Parent Cities
« Reply #5 on: June 23, 2011, 12:09:19 pm »
Andrew, I'm sure that you will enjoy the book and you got it at a pretty good price as well.  I saw another original on sale for $135.  I was fortunate that I was the only bidder on ebay, though mine is a well-used, former library book.  The amount of original artwork, sketches and pre-war(s) photos really are incredible!

Offline esnible

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Re: Greek Coins and Their Parent Cities
« Reply #6 on: June 23, 2011, 02:57:00 pm »
I have the reprint of Ward and also the Sotheby's auction catalog from the sale Curtis mentions.  The reprint does not have part 2, the rambles.  It has ordinary plates.

It is usually worthwhile to get original plates if they are autotype or collotype.  They were made using a gel-based printing/photographic process.  The process gives them an otherworldly appearance, halfway between pictures and printing.

The Sotheby catalog has a few color plates.  I have wondered if it was the first auction catalog to use colored plates.

 

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