278

A Consequential Misspelling?

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:1,000.00 USD Estimated At:1,500.00 USD
A Consequential Misspelling?
A buyer’s premium of 18% will be added to the cost of all lots purchased by absentee bidders. The premium is reduced to 15% for floor bidders. See shipping info and full terms.
Kosoff, A. THE OUTSTANDING COLLECTION OF UNITED STATES LARGE CENTS FORMED BY MR. OSCAR J. PEARL, NEW YORK CITY. FOR SALE AT FIXED PRICES. New York: Numismatic Gallery, 1944. 4to [28.5 by 22.5 cm], original cream-white full baby calf; upper cover and spine lettered in gilt. 24, xl pages; 479 listings; 16 plates of Pearl large cents; 7 other plates of large cents. Extremities a trifle worn; endpapers a little toned. Very good or better. The Deluxe Leatherbound Edition. Inscribed in black ink on the front free flyleaf: "To W.W. Niel (sic) with the Compliments of the Numismatic Gallery, A. Kosoff." An important catalogue, produced with the usual Kosoff flair. After listing 479 large cents of overall exceptionally fine quality and depicting both sides of 288 of them, Kosoff appended illustrated reprints of Crosby on 1793s and Chapman on 1794s. This famous catalogue is virtually unknown in the deluxe binding. The only examples we recall ever having seen are Sol Kaplan's, sold in our October 17, 1992 Mendelson Library sale, and Homer K. Downing's, sold in our June 1, 2004 Ford Library sale. Suave and debonair, Abe Kosoff carefully cultivated his best clients, hoping ultimately one day to handle their collections. Some of his competitors and contemporaries, perhaps in envy, are known to have termed him "the widow's friend." Will W. Neil's outstanding collection of American coins was sold at auction three years after publication of the Pearl catalogue--not by Numismatic Gallery but by B. Max Mehl. In 1941, Kosoff had uncharacteristically misspelled his own name in an auction catalogue and, though it seems unlikely, one cannot help but wonder if this subsequent faux pas had consequences far more serious than the mere misplacement of a dot. Ex Kolbe Sale 111, lot 97. Ex Dave Steine library.