26

The Bushnell Sale, with Plates

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:1,500.00 USD Estimated At:2,250.00 USD
The Bushnell Sale, with Plates
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.
Chapman, S.H. and H. CATALOGUE OF THE CELEBRATED AND VALUABLE COLLECTION OF AMERICAN COINS AND MEDALS OF THE LATE CHARLES I. BUSHNELL, ESQ. OF NEW YORK. New York: Bangs, June 20-24, 1882. 4to, later maroon cloth, gilt. 142 pages; 3000 lots; 12 original phototype plates with tissue guards. Supplement to the Good Samaritan shilling text included; prices realized list bound in. Tissue guards worn; generally fine. One of the landmarks of American numismatic literature. The Bushnell collection was the stuff of fables, being well-known, yet little seen. After Bushnell's death in 1880, a number of prominent dealers attempted to obtain the collection, but it was the Chapman brothers who, to the surprise of many, made off with the prize. Of the five hundred copies of the Bushnell catalogue printed, one hundred were supposedly issued with plates. Judging from their frequency of appearance on the market, it is probable that fewer were actually distributed. Five of the plates depict colonials, along with early patterns; three illustrate medals; one depicts Washington pieces; one illustrates rare United States gold and silver coins; and two depict cents and half cents. The Bushnell sale was the first large format auction catalogue issued by the Chapmans with plates. It established the brothers as the dominant force in American numismatics, a position they were to occupy both collectively and independently for the following half century. Unmercifully criticized at the time for various typographical and factual errors, passions soon cooled and a landmark catalogue remained. The brothers had set a new standard: oversize format, thick paper, new type, gilt letters, photographically produced plates and detailed if sometimes controversial descriptions. [online description truncated: see PDF or printed catalogue for full description]