Kolbe & Fanning
Auction 164 27 Aug 2022
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An Underappreciated Rarity
Woodward, W. Elliot. CATALOGUE OF AMERICAN AND RUSSIAN MINERALS, AND ARTICLES OF HOUSEHOLD ADORNMENT. New York: Bangs & Co., October 29-30, 1886. 8vo, original printed paper covers. 54 pages; 1579 lots. Removed from previous binding; lacking rear cover. Signed on the front cover by E.A. Barber. Very good or so. Adams 91. Rare. Like Sale 92, Sale 91 is non-numismatic and very difficult to find. Unlike Sale 92, hardly anyone seems to recognize just how rare Sale 91 is. Charles Davis recorded two offerings of this catalogue between 1980 and 1991 (as opposed to only one offering of Sale 92), but Karl Moulton's 2005 census listed only two copies of Sale 91 but five copies of Sale 92. I traced eleven separate copies of Sale 92 in a census published in the Spring 2003 issue of The Asylum, including copies in institutional libraries. I missed at least one, but one listed copy was destroyed in a recent wildfire, so that number probably remains reasonably accurate. This catalogue is very likely less common. We sold the copy belonging to P. Scott Rubin in our Sale 157 for an impressive $1500 hammer. Ex Charles Davis's sale of February 18, 2017; ex Cardinal Collection Library.
(Estimate: $300)
Woodward, W. Elliot. CATALOGUE OF AMERICAN AND RUSSIAN MINERALS, AND ARTICLES OF HOUSEHOLD ADORNMENT. New York: Bangs & Co., October 29-30, 1886. 8vo, original printed paper covers. 54 pages; 1579 lots. Removed from previous binding; lacking rear cover. Signed on the front cover by E.A. Barber. Very good or so. Adams 91. Rare. Like Sale 92, Sale 91 is non-numismatic and very difficult to find. Unlike Sale 92, hardly anyone seems to recognize just how rare Sale 91 is. Charles Davis recorded two offerings of this catalogue between 1980 and 1991 (as opposed to only one offering of Sale 92), but Karl Moulton's 2005 census listed only two copies of Sale 91 but five copies of Sale 92. I traced eleven separate copies of Sale 92 in a census published in the Spring 2003 issue of The Asylum, including copies in institutional libraries. I missed at least one, but one listed copy was destroyed in a recent wildfire, so that number probably remains reasonably accurate. This catalogue is very likely less common. We sold the copy belonging to P. Scott Rubin in our Sale 157 for an impressive $1500 hammer. Ex Charles Davis's sale of February 18, 2017; ex Cardinal Collection Library.
(Estimate: $300)