Kolbe & Fanning
Auction 159 6 Mar 2021
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Mysterious Private Work on French Coinage
Assalet, Commandant. NUMISMATIQUE FRANÇAISE DE LA 1e RÉPUBLIQUE (1792) À NOS JOURS. Chalon-sur-Saône, 1937. Twenty-five fascicules, complete, followed by a novembre 1939 "Fasicule Sup. No. 1" of Additifs et Errata. Twenty-six parts total, bound in one volume. 8vo, later tan quarter calf with marbled sides; spine lettered in blind; marbled endpapers; most original printed paper covers bound in. Imprimé par le Nardigraphe, reproducing the author's neat, diminutive handwriting. 374 + 8 pages; unnumbered prelims throughout. Issues folded for mailing, with some rear covers bearing postmarks, stamps and other signs of mailing. Very good or better, binding fine. A very rare and mysterious production. Only the second copy we have seen, and the first to have the supplementary fascicle. This publication, issued in serial form between April and December 1937 and produced on a nardigraphe (somewhat similar to a mimeograph and widely used in France at the time), is lacking from every library we have checked, numismatic and otherwise. That it was printed (if crudely) and mailed implies that multiple copies were produced, but we have been unable to find others. Each fascicle is signed Commandant Assalet, with no first name. He is listed in the same manner as a corresponding member of the Société française de numismatique in the Revue numismatique for 1940. A Jean Assalet, born on June 22, 1901 in Chalon-sur-Saône, is included in a 1941 prisoner of war listing (Liste officielle no 99 de prisonniers français d'après les renseignements fournis par l'autorité militaire allemande), where he is described as a capitaine imprisoned in an Oflag (a POW camp for officers). While a capitaine in the French military is a rank lower than a commandant, there is the possibility of a change in ranks with the outbreak of the war. While we cannot identify this person as the author of these works, there is at least a possibility that this is the case, with the shared name and town plus the fact that he was a military officer. The publication itself is a detailed guide to French coinage from the establishment of the République, and includes the colonies for the period covered. While it surely must have been based to some degree upon previously published works, it does not seem only to be a recapitulation of any of the guides of the time, and it appears to include original content. A highly interesting, if puzzling, work. A set in our Sale 141 (lot 358) brought $800 hammer.
Assalet, Commandant. NUMISMATIQUE FRANÇAISE DE LA 1e RÉPUBLIQUE (1792) À NOS JOURS. Chalon-sur-Saône, 1937. Twenty-five fascicules, complete, followed by a novembre 1939 "Fasicule Sup. No. 1" of Additifs et Errata. Twenty-six parts total, bound in one volume. 8vo, later tan quarter calf with marbled sides; spine lettered in blind; marbled endpapers; most original printed paper covers bound in. Imprimé par le Nardigraphe, reproducing the author's neat, diminutive handwriting. 374 + 8 pages; unnumbered prelims throughout. Issues folded for mailing, with some rear covers bearing postmarks, stamps and other signs of mailing. Very good or better, binding fine. A very rare and mysterious production. Only the second copy we have seen, and the first to have the supplementary fascicle. This publication, issued in serial form between April and December 1937 and produced on a nardigraphe (somewhat similar to a mimeograph and widely used in France at the time), is lacking from every library we have checked, numismatic and otherwise. That it was printed (if crudely) and mailed implies that multiple copies were produced, but we have been unable to find others. Each fascicle is signed Commandant Assalet, with no first name. He is listed in the same manner as a corresponding member of the Société française de numismatique in the Revue numismatique for 1940. A Jean Assalet, born on June 22, 1901 in Chalon-sur-Saône, is included in a 1941 prisoner of war listing (Liste officielle no 99 de prisonniers français d'après les renseignements fournis par l'autorité militaire allemande), where he is described as a capitaine imprisoned in an Oflag (a POW camp for officers). While a capitaine in the French military is a rank lower than a commandant, there is the possibility of a change in ranks with the outbreak of the war. While we cannot identify this person as the author of these works, there is at least a possibility that this is the case, with the shared name and town plus the fact that he was a military officer. The publication itself is a detailed guide to French coinage from the establishment of the République, and includes the colonies for the period covered. While it surely must have been based to some degree upon previously published works, it does not seem only to be a recapitulation of any of the guides of the time, and it appears to include original content. A highly interesting, if puzzling, work. A set in our Sale 141 (lot 358) brought $800 hammer.