S.H. & H. Chapman. Catalogue of the Celebrated and Valuable Collection of American Coins and Medals of the Late Charles I. Bushnell. June 20-24, 1882. By Bangs & Co. New York. Very Fine.Quarto, hardbound in black three-quarter calf and black cloth. Gilt titles on spine and cover. With 12 photographic plates, and one of just 100 copies so produced. Protective tissues at each plate. Four-page sale announcement of February 15, 1882 is laid in. Hand-priced throughout with a few pencil and pen margin notes in S.H. Chapman’s hand, including observations relating to some of the pieces sold, while various lines and individual words are underlined in red, seemingly identifications of material errors that eventually came to his attention, a problem for which the Chapman brothers were publicly criticized by their contemporary and better established competitors. This was partly earned, but probably had as much to do with their critics’ bitterness at losing such a collection to these young brothers. The Chapmans, per their own sale announcement, intended “to make it a work of reference, and not spare expense in the execution of the letter press.” They continued with their expectation that “it will always be worth the price.” Indeed, the sale was an undeniable landmark and solidified their status as a go-to firm for great collections. As for its longstanding value, the present writer has consulted it many times, comfortably more than a century after the fact. Charles Ira Bushnell, a leading collector and numismatic scholar of his day, died in 1880 and his collection was sold intact to another very prominent numismatist, Lorin G. Parmelee of Boston. Parmelee consigned the collection intact to the Chapmans, and bought in pieces he needed for his own collection, though his involvement as the owner was not publicized at the time. A hard-bound and plated Bushnell catalog is one of the prizes among 19th-century auction sales and is rarely offered. This beautiful copy, Samuel Hudson Chapman’s own, is perhaps one of the very best to be had.From the D. Brent Pogue Library. Earlier ex Ted Craige Library, George Frederick Kolbe, August 1983, lot 852.
