I have yet to update my Annotated Bibliography of the BCD Collection/Library page, but a few months ago I learned that the BCD Library (Athens) was being dispersed.
BACKGROUND
The first lesson I take from the BCD Collection-Library is that coins and their publications are fundamentally inseparable.
For decades (formed c. 1970s-1980s), the BCD Library has been known as the world’s greatest private library of classical numismatics, established & managed with entomologist, classicist, and librarian Patricia Felch since 1983 (CoinsWeekly, May 2016). Though privately held, it has always been known as an important resource for scholars (much like the collector’s coins).
Photos (reduced) by Andrew McCabe (2012).
Originals: “Reading Room…” & “Auction catalogues…“
As the catalogers of the first “Duplicates” sale (Auctiones GmbH e-Auction 28) wrote a decade ago, if anything “puts the BCD collection of ancient Greek coins in the shade, it is the BCD Library…by far the largest privately owned library on Greek numismatics that ever existed” (The E-Sylum 17, 26, a3). (Then again: How could anything shade such a collection of coins?)
For additional background on the Library, including many photographs, I highly recommend:
- Andrew McCabe’s (scholar & collector of Roman Republican) 2012 travelogue: NBS summary & Flickr gallery.
- Frank S. Robinson’s (collector & long-time dealer) reminiscences about BCD and the Library, reprinted in The E-Sylum 27 (5): Article 3, including my photos of BCD’s photos & tags, found by FSR on Google image search. (I didn’t realize it was posted in two places, so our exchange is in the comments here.)
THE ANNOUNCEMENT(S)
A second lesson of the BCD Collection-Library is that, to fully appreciate any ancient coin or piece of numismatic literature, one must understand its “object biography” or provenance.
Thus I received news of the sale with mixed feelings — having missed any chance to visit, but excited to acquire an artifact of the legendary institution. The news came first from the Kolbe & Fanning website (I noticed it in October), announcing the first sale (Auction 169, 17 Feb 2024, with more sales planned). The PDF catalog (available from their archive) includes intro essays — one each by the collector, Alan S. Walker, and David Fanning — with valuable background on the library (see the online listings for more photos).
Then, in October, Shanna Schmidt announced that the S&S Library (Chicago) had acquired the legendary collection of sale catalogs — en bloc! See: Schmidt 211 (Dec 2023, illustrated) [reprinted in The E-Sylum v26 n52 (24 Dec 2023)]; Schmidt 209 (Oct 2023); and, The E-Sylum v27, n12 (24 Mar 2024), “Chicago Coin Club Meets at S&S Library.”
Fortunately, I had acquired a few dozen FPLs & auctions from past BCD Library “Duplicates” sales (and a few that RBW had long ago acq. from BCD). Some include coins now in my collection, a few of which were “lost provenances” until I “rediscovered” them in the catalogs:
Salton 27 (2 coins [Laval, RPC]);
Malloy XXXIII (2 coins [Lindgren]);
Stack’s Sawhill Sale (1 coin [BCD, Otto]).
Some catalogs had also been in prior notable numismatic libraries (many dealers & collectors were eager to contribute to their duplicates), for example:
CCE 59 (ex Malter Library, 1 coin, very special to me, as is this catalog);
Catalog Favorites & Catalog Library
JSD X21 (ex Malloy Library);
BOMAR FPLs (ex Brunk Lib.);
Weaver FPL 2 (ex Christiansen Lib., 1 coin).
KOLBE & FANNING AUCTION 169
Among the holdings were many unique and historically important documents, such as the original, complete plates for the Pozzi collection pictured below (KF 169, Lot 384).
Kolbe & Fanning Auction 169 (17 Feb 2024), Lot 384: Original Plates Prepared for Dieudonné’s Catalogue of the Pozzi Collection. [NOT mine – sadly!]
The object above can also be seen in its context on BCD’s shelves in Athens, in 2012, in one of Andrew McCabe’s photographs (top shelf, slightly left). Reduced below (click for his full size):
The box for the plates is in the same classic tan leather “BCD Style” as many of the library book volumes, and familiar to any of the library’s visitors (so I hear!).
As David Fanning wrote:
“Among the more distinctive aspects of the BCD Library are the bindings. The collector wished both to preserve the books in his library and provide them with the dignity of better bindings than usually encountered. To that end, he had many of the books in his library bound in leather: usually tan quarter leather (spine only) or half leather (spine and corners), but sometimes in full leather. Given that the library was formed over the course of several decades, a few different binders were used. Dionysis Valassis was one of the first binders used by BCD, and he is responsible for many of the more unusual and distinctive bindings, including those that incorporate ancient coins in them (lots 348 and 387). In more recent years, Marianna Koilakou executed a number of BCD bindings. Use by visitors to the library has left their mark on some of the volumes, particularly those in Valassis bindings, which were executed using untreated leather. But the tan leather bindings have become a trademark of the BCD Library, and they bring pleasant memories to mind for many scholars who consulted the BCD Library over the years.”
(David Fanning’s words — but I can’t find an original source beyond online posts by a K&F associate.)
In fact, all of the volumes I won are also illustrated in the photo above:
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum: The Burton Y Berry Collection. Part I: Macedonia to Attica [bound with] Part II: Megaris to Egypt. NY: ANS 1961–2. Clain-Stefanelli 1916*. Daehn 1961. Ex BCD Library, Kolbe & Fanning Auction 169 (17 Feb 2024), Lot 447;
with: S. Hurter’s (1999) “More Capara Forgeries…” (incl. Berry 25) & H. Seyrig’s (1961) review in GNS/SM, both in a pocket on back cover;
note: I don’t find his mark, but I suspect Dionysis Valassis (1939-2023) bound this vol. for a few reasons (see paragraph above), incl. the distinctive hand-lettering reminiscent of Classical/Hellenistic inscriptions found on many of his others (I’m reminded of the Rosetta Stone’s “handwriting” or certain Greek gravestones).
Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum: Levante-Cilicia, 1986 ; SNG Levante Supplement, 1993 ; and SNG J-P Righetti, Bern. Hist. Mus., 1993. All three ex BCD Library, Kolbe & Fanning Auction 169 (17 Feb 2024), Lot 445;
also Shown: Two coins from my collection illustrated in SNG Levante (Nos. 777: Philip, Seleucia-ad-Calycadnum [ex Merani sale on ACSearch] & 1586: Faustina II, Hierapolis-Castabala [ex von Aulock 5572 et al.]).
To my great surprise and delight, I was able to achieve both of my goals for this sale: (1) at least one tan leather custom “BCD Bound” volume, and (2) at least one volume illustrating coins in my collection (SNG Levante I).
While I do not (yet) own any coins illustrated in SNG Berry (contrary to popular belief, the ANS does not have them all), I have some associated literature:
- Hardcover, signed & inscribed (tipped-in card) copy of Burton’s Numismatic Biography. Of 600 copies, only a small number were hardcover.
- Inscribed to “Kermitt” (?). Possibly Kermit Roosevelt Jr. (1916-2000, but one “t” & often “Kim” to friends), grandson of the President Theodore Roosevelt and important figure in the CIA. He was a colleague of Ambassador Berry, both involved in America’s handling of the Mossadegh reign in Iran. (Roosevelt is often credited as one of, if not the, primary American actor in the 1953 coup d’état.)
Wouldn’t that make a fascinating historical parallel with Berry’s “politically incorrect” collecting practices? (See “Note from BCD”: PF Jacquier 48 [2020], 1004, BCD Library Duplicates.)
Kermit Sr. collected at least some coins (incl. a very famous 1907 Gold $20), as did Pres. Theodore Roosevelt & Cornelius V.S. Roosevelt III (Kermit Jr.’s cousin & colleague at the CIA, both also involved in the post-WWII Pacific coinages). Is Kermit Roosevelt Jr. also known to have collected coins?
(See also: PFJ 44 [2018], 2502, BCD Lib.; PFJ 43 [2017], 1027, BCD Lib.; Auctiones GmbH 28 (2014), 76, BCD Lib. Four total duplicates of this companion volume; that each is cataloged w/ new commentary is only a small hint of the collector’s vast knowledge & scholarly impulse. Though remarkable under-utilized, the “Notes from BCD” are a unique and valuable, and often highly entertaining, resource on ancient coin literature — one of my favorites. I recommend reading them all [about 1,700]. Only a few sentences each, they’re perfect for reading a few or few dozen at a time whenever one has a free moment.)
- Inscribed to “Kermitt” (?). Possibly Kermit Roosevelt Jr. (1916-2000, but one “t” & often “Kim” to friends), grandson of the President Theodore Roosevelt and important figure in the CIA. He was a colleague of Ambassador Berry, both involved in America’s handling of the Mossadegh reign in Iran. (Roosevelt is often credited as one of, if not the, primary American actor in the 1953 coup d’état.)
- Three auction catalogs of Numismatic Art & Ancient Coins (Zurich & San Diego), run by Burton Berry’s stepson Azzedine El’Aaji, and which dispersed his collection coins not acq. by ANS, many of them published in SNG Berry.
- Two of them ex Alex G Malloy Library, Lot 1556 (part; no ownership marks besides a few pencil annotations).