Kolbe & Fanning
Auction 164 27 Aug 2022
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
With the Extremely Rare Supplementary Addenda
Thomas, M., & Sons. CATALOGUE OF AN EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF COINS AND MEDALS, IN GOLD, SILVER, AND COPPER. AND SPLENDID ROSEWOOD CABINET. Philadelphia, June 12-13, 1855. Tall 8vo, original printed paper covers. 100 pages; 1712 lots, plus 135-lot addendum bound in as always. Very neatly ruled in red and priced by hand in black. Spine splitting, though holding; front cover cracking near spine. Very good or better. [with] Thomas & Sons, M. PRICED SUPPLEMENTARY ADDENDA, OF COINS AND NUMISMATIC WORKS... Philadelphia, June 13, 1855. Single sheet [23.5 by 15 cm] printed on one side. 5 lots; price realized printed by each lot. Just a trifle dusty with light chipping at edges; marked "Duplic." (!) in pencil. Loosely laid in the main catalogue. Near fine. Numismatic historian Joel J. Orosz has written that "there can be no disputing the statement that the Kline sale was the most significant numismatic auction in America before the Civil War." The catalogue, published by the M. Thomas and Sons auction firm, hit the 100-page mark, and brought $2,062.80, making it the new record holder for the most valuable coin collection to be sold at auction in the U.S. The sale was strong in American and British coins, as well as in Roman coins (lots 780-1159), but what is really distinctive about it was the quality of the cataloguing. For the ancient coins, legends are spelled out, devices described, dates noted--in some cases even weights are provided. While the unnamed cataloguer fails to cite sources in the body of the text, it is revealing that the sale's offerings included a copy of the 1847 third edition of Mionnet's De la raretŽ et du prix des mŽdailles romaines, which would have been extremely useful in cataloguing the ancient coins, as well as the more general guides of Pinkerton, Akerman and Cooke. The Kline sale marked a dramatic improvement in the utility of American auction catalogues; for a similar improvement, we must move forward into the era of illustrated catalogues. The supplementary addenda is extremely rare. Sold from manuscript at the sale, it was subsequently privately printed in an edition of 25 copies. This one of only two copies we have handled (the other being from the Ford library). Kline was a man involved in many businesses, including the coin and stamp trades. He consigned coins to a number of auctions, using both his own and his wife's name, but the 1855 sale is the one for which he is remembered. Attinelli 11. Ex Harry W. Bass, Jr. Library (Kolbe Sale 75), lot 267 at $700 hammer; ex Jim Neiswinter Library.
(Estimate: $400)
Thomas, M., & Sons. CATALOGUE OF AN EXTENSIVE AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF COINS AND MEDALS, IN GOLD, SILVER, AND COPPER. AND SPLENDID ROSEWOOD CABINET. Philadelphia, June 12-13, 1855. Tall 8vo, original printed paper covers. 100 pages; 1712 lots, plus 135-lot addendum bound in as always. Very neatly ruled in red and priced by hand in black. Spine splitting, though holding; front cover cracking near spine. Very good or better. [with] Thomas & Sons, M. PRICED SUPPLEMENTARY ADDENDA, OF COINS AND NUMISMATIC WORKS... Philadelphia, June 13, 1855. Single sheet [23.5 by 15 cm] printed on one side. 5 lots; price realized printed by each lot. Just a trifle dusty with light chipping at edges; marked "Duplic." (!) in pencil. Loosely laid in the main catalogue. Near fine. Numismatic historian Joel J. Orosz has written that "there can be no disputing the statement that the Kline sale was the most significant numismatic auction in America before the Civil War." The catalogue, published by the M. Thomas and Sons auction firm, hit the 100-page mark, and brought $2,062.80, making it the new record holder for the most valuable coin collection to be sold at auction in the U.S. The sale was strong in American and British coins, as well as in Roman coins (lots 780-1159), but what is really distinctive about it was the quality of the cataloguing. For the ancient coins, legends are spelled out, devices described, dates noted--in some cases even weights are provided. While the unnamed cataloguer fails to cite sources in the body of the text, it is revealing that the sale's offerings included a copy of the 1847 third edition of Mionnet's De la raretŽ et du prix des mŽdailles romaines, which would have been extremely useful in cataloguing the ancient coins, as well as the more general guides of Pinkerton, Akerman and Cooke. The Kline sale marked a dramatic improvement in the utility of American auction catalogues; for a similar improvement, we must move forward into the era of illustrated catalogues. The supplementary addenda is extremely rare. Sold from manuscript at the sale, it was subsequently privately printed in an edition of 25 copies. This one of only two copies we have handled (the other being from the Ford library). Kline was a man involved in many businesses, including the coin and stamp trades. He consigned coins to a number of auctions, using both his own and his wife's name, but the 1855 sale is the one for which he is remembered. Attinelli 11. Ex Harry W. Bass, Jr. Library (Kolbe Sale 75), lot 267 at $700 hammer; ex Jim Neiswinter Library.
(Estimate: $400)