Since purchasing John Spring's
Ancient Coin Auction Catalogues, I’ve become borderline obsessive about
buying old
auction catalogues for my
library, both for
provenance research and general research. In just the past year, I’ve acquired the following catalogues. I’m focusing on the
Roman Republic, but I’ve accessioned a few Imperial and Roman-Egypt catalogues along the way. I’m pleased with the progress I’m making, but there are
still some large, expensive holes (i.e.
Martini,
Prowe) and some stubborn, likely inexpensive sales that I just can't find (i.e. Myers 7, various Santamaria sales). In a few cases, I’ve settled for reprints where I doubt I can source an affordable original. Over time, I
hope to rebind many of the currently softbound catalogues, but I’m already running-out of shelf space and hard bindings will absorb even more real estate.
1. Collezzione
Haeberlin. A high
quality, limited production reprint of the 1933 Cahn/Hess
auction catalogue on
good quality paper, with decent plates and handsomely bound in quarter-leather. Expensive, but a fraction of the cost of an original.
2.
CNG 43 and 45 and
Triton I (Goodman
Collection). The
Triton I is hardbound.
3. Glendining – October 1975 (Dr. H.F. Harwood
Part I).
4. Leu/MuM 21/10/66 (
Niggeler vol 2). Nice
quality RR and
provincial coins. Many of the
Republican coins have
provenance to earlier
collections. In addition to the
fine Republican coins, this
catalogue contains some stunning drachms of
Roman Alexandria with earlier
provenance.
5. Leu 17 (Nicolas
Collection). I
had this
catalogue hardbound in black “processed” leather. “Processed” leather is the leather equivalent of plywood.
6.
Lanz 88 (Leo Benz
Collection). Also hardbound in black processed leather.
7. Leo
Hamburger No. 95 - May 1932. Recently purchased, but not yet received.
8. Munzhandlung
Basel 6 – March 1936. I actually bought this
catalogue for the
Roman Egypt coins, but it also contains nearly 3 full plates of
Republican.
9. Munzen und Medaillen 17 - December 1957.
10. MuM 19 - June 1959.
11. MuM 38 – December 1968 (Coll. Voirol). A gift from a friend. Lovely coins, many with
provenance to earlier, important
collections like
Haeberlin.
12. MuM 43 – November 1970.
13. MuM 47 – November 1972. Huge offering of
Aes Grave.
14. MuM 52 – June 1975. I recently acquired a coin with
provenance to this sale.
15. Naville Ars Classica
VIII – 1924 (Coll.
Bement). An impressive sale of
Roman coins, strong in both
Republican and Imperial. Available for free online, but I’m old school and prefer to
work with hardcopies.
16. Naville Ars Classica XV – 1930 (W.H.
Woodward). A Father’s Day 2015 present, to be received next Sunday!
17. Dr. Buso
Peus Auction 322 – 1988.
Auction sale dedicated to a
collection of about 650
Republican coins. Coins are mostly
gVF, with a few better, but the
collection is very broad.
Per my recent
thread on
Forum, clues in this
catalogue and in
Banti’s Corpus Nummorum Romanorum lead me to suspect that this
collection may have been Alberto
Banti’s personal
collection of
Roman Republican coins.
18.
Vecchi 3 – September 1996, A
Collection of
Roman Republican Struck Bronze Coinage. Huge selection of struck bronzes. I often refer to this
catalogue when I need to see an example of any given struck bronze
type.
19.
Vecchi 9 – December 1997,
Collection of the Coinage of
Augustus.
20. NAC 10 – April 1997. Large selection of
Aes Grave.
21.
Russo,
et al. The
RBW Collection. Technically not an
auction catalogue, but all the RBW
auction sales combined into one, easy-to-use, chronologically-arranged, sylloge-format volume. A tremendous resource that I often use.
22. Rodolfo
Ratto – January 1924 (Bonazzi). I ordered this recently, but have not yet received it.
23. Rodolfo
Ratto 1927 Fixed
Price List of
Roman coins from the Republic through
Augustus. Bound in modern half-cloth with mottled boards. I didn’t know it was hard-bound when I bought it, so I was pleasantly surprised upon receipt.
24. Rodolfo
Ratto - 8/2/1928 (Morcom/Hands/Wertheim). An impressive sale with separate loose plates in a folder at the back of the
catalogue. When I eventually re-bind this
catalogue, I’m not sure whether to bind-in the plates or keep them separate.
25. Hans
Schulman,
Thomas Ollive
Mabbott Collection, Parts I and II.
26. Sotheby’s, Duke of
Northumberland Collection – ex RBW’s
library, with
his notes and bid sheet!
27. Sotheby’s, Eton College – ex RBW’s
library, with
his notes and bid sheet!
28. Stack’s – 1938 (Faelten
Collection). Nicely hardbound in full cloth. The plates are mediocre; but Barry Murphy gave me a very
fair deal, so I took a chance.
29. Stack’s – May 1978 (Knobloch I Republic). A recent purchase. I acquired the Knobloch II Imperial
catalogue new in 1980 and I bought my first
auction coin from that sale!
30. Frank Sternberg,
Auction VII (November 1977). I recently acquired a coin with
provenance to this sale.
31.
Sydenham Collection. A mediocre-quality, Attic reprint of the 1928 original. At $30, it was better than nothing…barely.
EDIT: I forgot, I just bought two more old catalogues today from
FORVM!
CNG XII (
Sep 1990), which includes
part of Kerry Wetterstrom's
collection of
Roman Egypt bronzes, and Frank Sternberg 30 (1973). I need a bigger house...