Newell, Edward Theodore (1816)
Book Summary
4to, original blue cloth, gilt. 72 pages; 10 very fine plates of coins with tissue guards. The entire catalogue section of the volume is interleaved with blank sheets, which the author has used for extensive annotations germane to the facing printed page (see comments). Additional annotations are made directly to the printed text and, in one case, to the plates. One sheet of notes laid in. Near fine. The author’s own copy of the very scarce original edition of this important study, featuring fine photographically printed coin plates. Edward T. Newell (1886–1941) remains perhaps this country’s greatest classical numismatist, and his writing continues to be enormously influential. Newell had this copy interleaved, and used the resulting volume not only to record examples of these coins present in his own collection (though this record is of considerable value, often providing provenances and other information otherwise easily lost), but of pieces he encountered in other collections and institutional holdings. He also used the volume to record corrections, additions, and other revisions. It is not an exaggeration to state that Newell updated this volume throughout the rest of his life: auction records are given as late as 1936. Weights of individual examples are meticulously recorded, and Newell updated provenances of those pieces cited in the printed text when ownership had changed (most frequently noting that ownership was “now E.T.N.”) All told, there are 26 added pages with handwritten annotations, 20 printed pages with handwritten additions or corrections, one small piece of paper laid in with handwritten notes, and one coin plate on which a depicted coin is indicated by Newell as “fourrée.” A unique and most interesting copy of a scarce and notable Newell publication. One of only 300 copies printed. Yale Oriental Series, Researches Volume II. Clain-Stefanelli 2346. Daehn 3440. Kroh 24: “one of the earliest specialized die-studies ... still very valid and much utilized.”
