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A Rare Deluxe Atwater Catalogue

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:1,500.00 USD Estimated At:2,250.00 USD
A Rare Deluxe Atwater Catalogue
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Mehl, B. Max. CATALOGUE OF THE FAMOUS AND COMPLETE COLLECTION OF UNITED STATES GOLD, SILER AND COPPER COINS FORMED BY WILLIAM CUTLER ATWATER… INCLUDING THE CELEBRATED STICKNEY 1804 COLLAR AND THE IDLER 1804 DOLLAR…. Fort Worth, June 11, 1946. 4to, original flexible full black morocco, gilt; original printed card covers bound in. 199, (7); (12) pages; 2398 lots; frontispiece portrait of Atwater; text illustrations; prices realized list bound in. Hand-priced in ink. Signed by Mehl on the title page. Sale prospectus with signed letter from Mehl to "Mr. Hines" [presumably Henry Hines] laid in. Lightly rubbed at extremities; near fine. The Deluxe Leatherbound Edition. Ex William Rabin, with his name stamped in gilt at the base of the front cover. Perhaps as few as eight or ten deluxe Atwater catalogues were originally issued by Mehl (as compared with 25 or so of the deluxe Dunham catalogue), though several have been offered in recent years. Five others are currently known to us, originally presented to Abe Kosoff, Gaston DiBello, A.W. Buehring, J.F. McDermott and Russell H. Renz. The owner of the volume at hand, William Rabin, was a Philadelphia coin dealer active since the early 1920s. A coin collector for over a quarter century, William Cutler Atwater's penchant for quality is evident throughout the sale. Indeed, the superb condition of the coins have prompted many to consider it superior to the Dunham collection in overall importance. Mehl himself, in a 1946 letter to Thomas Elder, described the Atwater auction as "the most important I have ever held." Ex Kolbe Sale 100, lot 63. Ex Harry W. Bass, Jr. library (Kolbe Sale 75, lot 199), with his bookplate; Bass acquired it from Aaron Feldman in 1971. Ex Raymond Hale library.