Cogan, Edward. Catalogue of Coins and Medals the property of Mortimer Livingston Mackenzie, Esq. June 23-24, 1869. Leavitt, Strebeigh & Co., New York. Fine.Octavo. Hardbound in black cloth with blind stamped ornaments around the cover borders. Glossy black paper label on the cover lettered in gilt, COIN CATALOGUE. // M.L. MACKENZIE. Fully priced and partially named in brown ink and pencil, with five excellent plates, some of finer quality than those seen in some sale catalogs produced decades later. Some pages loose, but mostly holding. The third plate and its adjacent page (35) are fully separated. Light dampness ripples in the end papers, one of which has a small notch from the top, but none of this affects the catalog pages which are in remarkably nice condition. Some chipping along the spine borders, edge wear and corner rounding. Still, considering the vintage and the century-and-a-half of research value this plated sale has offered, it is remarkable that it has survived at all. Ranked an “A” sale by John Adams for its content, and noted by Charles Davis as being “blessed with content worthy of that distinction” in referencing its status as the first plated American sale.<p>Mortimer L. Mackenzie must have assembled his collection in a very short period of time, unless some portion of it was inherited. He was born in 1843, married the year after his sale, and died a fairly young man in 1874. Professionally, he was involved in shipping and in his relatively short life managed to be called to testify in front of the United States Senate, during the second session of the 42nd Congress, in 1872. The matter of inquiry had to do with sales of ordinance by the War Department, and Mackenzie seems to have been of interest due to his work in shipping. He described himself as “cashier of the French line of steamers—the general transatlantic company,” per the Congressional Record.From the D. Brent Pogue Library. Earlier ex George Frederick Kolbe, October 2006, lot 760.
