Another Post on Ancient Coin Books: Alois Wenninger Library Sale

Did anyone else participate in Kuenker's auction of the Alois Wenninger Library?

Or any other recent book purchases to share? Or books you've read recently and want to talk about?

Kuenker 399 on Saturday, 18 Nov 2023:​

• Sale on Numisbids with prices realized.
• On Kuenker website with more photos.

Like coins, I always prefer to buy books that have some kind of interesting "object biography," so I wait for sales like this and buy whatever I can.

Biographical background on Wenninger (1949-):​

• Numismatic Bibliomania Society:
  https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/club_nbs_esylum_v26n45.html#article3
• and Kuenker Exclusiv Nov 2023, page 11:
  https://issuu.com/kuenkercoins/docs/kuenker_exklusiv_2023_25_eng

There were several scarce books I'd spent a long time looking for. These two are a big deal if you collect Cappadocian coins and small Greek silver coins (Kleinsilbermuenzen!). When they become available they're usually expensive:

SIMONETTA, ALBERTO M. 2007. "The Coinage of the Cappadocian Kings: a revision and a catalogue of the Simonetta Collection." In: Parthica 9.​

The 1977 Coinage of the Cappadocian Kings (incl. with it) by the father, Bono Simonetta (1903-1987), is a classic, foundational catalog, but it's much more common than the one by his son, Alberto Mario Simonetta (1930-2021), and can be found anytime for $20 or less.

A.M. Simonetta added substantially to collection and made revisions to the catalog (incl. some concessions to Morkholm, I believe).

The 2007 catalog is very difficult to find. I've been looking for an (affordable!) copy since I bought seven coins from the Simonetta collection a couple years ago. Jacquier has had a copy on MA-Shops for $180 + $50 shipping for a while now (actually cheap compared to some!), but that was a bit much.

On arrival I'll make a post with the Simonetta Collection coins too (most of which are also published in various articles from the 1950s onward):
​

KLEIN, DIETER. 1999. Sammlung von griechischen Kleinsilbermünzen und Bronzen. Berlin/Milan: Nomismata 3.
[ANS Library Record]

Amazingly, there were 3 copies of this scarce book in the sale! Two were in group lots. I also tried to buy the single-lot copy that was signed by Klein with a warm inscription to Wellinger, but I lost my nerve and dropped out of the bidding (around 160 EUR I think).

This is an essential book for collectors of small Greek coinage, especially from Asia Minor. Again, very hard to find.

My ex-Sammlung Klein "plate coins" from the book (Nos. 764 & 769):
​

I was able to get two other scarce volumes (one more than the other) related to small Greek coinage. These two "festscrhrifts" both relate to the recent Collection sans Pareille. (Remarkably, copies of both also appeared in another sale this morning at Antivm on DeaMoneta!)

Arthur Houghton, Silvia Hurter, Patricia Erhart Mottahedeh, and Jane Ayer Scott (editors.). 1984. Festschrift für Leo Mildenberg / Studies in honor of Leo Mildenberg : Numismatik, Kunstgeschichte, Archäologie. Wetteren: NR.
[ANS Library Record]
with many contributions, including by Denyse Berend.

SYLVIA HURTER & CARMEN ARNOLD-BIUCCI (editors). 2000. Pour Denyse. Divertissements Numismtiques. Bern.
[ANS Library Record]
with many contributions, including Leo Mildenberg.​

The "Collection sans Pareille" of Greek Silver Fractions was big-deal collection sold at Nomos 26 and Nomos 29. I'm not sure "how secret" the collector's name is supposed to be, so I won't ID her yet (Nomos IDed her as "her"). But she was a close friend of Leo Mildenberg and purchased his collection en bloc in 1966, I think.

I bought two coins from the collection, both ex Mildenberg as well (one of which was also ex von Aulock). I strongly suspect at least one of the coins is published in Mildenberg's important essay on "Kleingeld" in Pour Denyse.

​

I was hoping to get more of the signed/inscribed literature (I'm really mad at myself for missing one or two in particular, though thrilled overall). But at least I got this very interesting one:

NOLLÉ, JOHANNES. 1996. “Themistokles in Magnesia. Uber die Anfange der Mentalitat, das eigne Prtrat auf Munzen zu setzen.” In SNR 75
[ANS Library Catalog]

An important article on the Ionian coinage of Themistokles after he jumped ship from Athens & joined the Persians. A few years later, Nollé coauthored another article on the same topic with Wenninger (as in, this Alois Wenninger), so it's particular special to have a copy of the off-print with a friendly inscription to him.

I wish my Themisto. Hemiobol was referenced in this article, but unfortunately they didn't cite it until their later co-authored article. J. Nollé & A. Wenninger, JNG 48, 1998, p.67 Th5a (this coin cited) =

​

I bought a bunch more, including several more with my coins inside, but I won't go through them all. There's a group of 36 auctions in there -- including 9 of the 10 BCD Sales!! Here's a collage showing a few more (some weren't photographed, I've used stock images for Winzer & BCD)



Any ancient coin book stuff to share or discuss??

 

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I'm still looking for a copy of Lindgren III if anyone knows where I can purchase a copy. I've only seen 3 volume sets for sale which I don't need as I already have autographed copies of volumes 1 and 2.



I'm also looking for single copies of:
1. RIC Volumes 2 and 3
2. Moneta Imperii Romani: MIR 36, 43, 44 by Robert Gobl

 

I will keep an eye out -- I feel like I see copies of III pretty regularly. I've got a duplicate of I, which is usually the harder one to find and more expensive. It's awesome that you've got signed copies of I and II!

My copy of III is autographed (inscribed to a Mark Millman (?) in 1996 -- anyone recognize that name?). Wish my whole set was! At some point hopefully I'll have all 3.

He actually had a Lindgren IV planned, and the coins assembled, but abandoned the project around the early 00s or late 90s. A lot of the coins sold through Antioch Associates were originally meant for the final book.

I consider one and two the more important ones, but the full set makes a really wonderful & unique reference. There are a few other similar bronze Greek collections out there (like the Laffaille book) but usually much less comprehensive. Now that we have digital references these books are less essential, but I still love having them, and make sure to catalog all my coins to as many of the old references as possible.

They're also great for figuring out the references from older literature or dealer listings & tags. Sometimes you'll see a coin that was cataloged to Lindgren because that's all that was available to the author (or dealer or catalog) in 1993 or whenever, and it can be useful to have these books for looking them up.

 

Just ordered this one today



Because I recently bought this coin

 

Absolutely wonderful @Curtis ! I saw the sale but I didn’t participate because I was already spread thin with other targets/active bids. I am glad you did so well!

I posted photos of a few of my shelves in an interview series Ocat is posting on NF: here.

I was recently extremely happy to pick up a copy of the 1986 Superior Galleries sale of the Robert Grover Collection. It shed some additional light on one of my favorite coin provenances.


Egypt, Alexandria
Antoninus Pius
BI Tetradrachm, Alexandria mint, RY 11 = AD 147/8.
Dia.: 24 mm
Wt.: 13.81 g
Obv.: ANTωNEINOC CEB EYCEB, Laureate bust right
Rev.: L ENΔEKATOV, Elpis standing left, lifting hem of skirt and holding flower
Ref.: Dattari-Savio pl. 111, 8160 (this coin illustrated); Emmett 1383.11; RPC Online IV temp #13607 (this coin cited).
Ex Giovanni Dattari Collection (1853-1923), illustrated in Dattari-Savio (pl. 111, 8160); Ex Robert L. Grover Collection of Roman-Egyptian Coinage, donated to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1981 (1981.511)

 

Note: My "Provenance Glossary" entry for R.L. Grover (1910-1998) excerpted at the very end of comment...

(That's a great NF thread!!)

Aha -- we share coins from that same group lot: Ex Gemini XIII (6 April 2017), Group Lot 460 (deaccession sale of Art Institute of Chicago, all ex Grover).

Like many of the big lots, that group was not illustrated in the Gemini Catalog. Fortunately for us, a photo of the 16 coins was shared on CoinTalk (mine is top center, yours is far right on row 2):

photo by @zumbly​

So our coins share the same chain-of-custody for about 120 years, from the late 19th/early 20th century in the Dattari Collection, through the Grover Collection, into and back out of the Art Institute of Chicago, through Harlan Berk/Gemini, until the last owner sold them to us!

My coin = Dattari-Savio Suppl. pl 14, 17 = Art Institute of Chicago #1981.460, donated by R.L. Grover:

***​

I've also got one coin from the 1986 Superior Sale whose catalog you mentioned adding.

It's a Thessaly, Larissa Drachm, and I bought it specifically for the Grover-to-BCD Collection provenance. (My exact reason -- explained below -- might sound crazy to anyone but me.)



Why THAT coin?
I collect (partly) by provenance but not just by "single provenance"; I collect by "provenance networks."

In other words, I don't just buy a coin because it's ex-Grover or ex-BCD collection. I buy it if it represents a social network connecting at least two other collections (preferably more, of course).

In this case, the Grover-->BCD link allowed me to connect two large, previously unconnected branches of my provenance networks. That one coin allowed me to add 11 more collections to my existing network of >50 other collections.

It's shown in a red rectangle (more explanation below):


The red line shows the new network, which is linked only by the Grover-->BCD coin. So, that one coin allowed me to connect Dattari, Righetti, ETB (@Okidoki ), Voirol, AK Collection & others, to the rest of my larger, interconnected network of Greek & Roman coin provenances. (Like "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.")

(The network diagram has grown further since then. I do still have a couple of big disconnected "islands" I need to attach. The bigger they get, the better the chance of finding a connection. Some day I'd like every single coin in my collection to be interconnected to all the others by previous ownership.)

***​

R. L. GROVER BIO:

I've probably mentioned my in-progress "Provenance Glossary" which I've been putting online: https://conservatoricoins.com/provenance-coins/#private-collections

My entry for "GROVER, ROBERT L. (1910-1998)" is online (others still need to be posted):

Chicago area attorney, attended Northwestern Law School, passed the IL Bar in 1934. Collection begun early in his legal career, formed c. 1930s – 1986. Donated major Alexandrian collection the Art Institute of Chicago (incl. many ex Dattari), 1978-1984, duplicates from which were de-accessioned and sold in Gemini XIII (cataloged by Curtis Clay). (At least 64 of those coins were purchased by the American Numismatic Society.) Made another substantial donation to the American Numismatic Association, incl. RIC. His remaining collection of Greek, Roman, Byzantine was sold at Superior Stamp & Coin in 1986 (see below).

[Superior (11 Jun 1986), The Frank Grove [Modern/World] & Robert Grover [Ancient] Collections (Bio on p. 8) ; Gemini XIII, by Harlan J. Berk (6 April 2017), The Robert L. Grover Collection of Roman Egypt… (Bio on p. 6) ; ANS Magazine (2018) vol. 17 (2): pp. 20ff.]

Coins: Larissa AR Drachm (BCD) ; Antoninus Sarapis Tetradrachm (Dattari, A.I.C.) ; Trajan Canopus Tetradrachm (A.I.C.) ; Gordian III Tetradrachm (A.I.C.)​

 

Curtis, I don't think I could ever do this for my coins as my head was spinning just reading thru your chart

 

It’s actually not too complicated once you know what you’re looking at. It’s just a “social network diagram” (I happen to be familiar with them as a sociologist).

You can make a simple one for any coin that had two or more known collectors (or yourself and one prior collector).

So, here’s a Faustina that was in Edoardo Levante's collection and also in Hans von Aulock's collection:



And here's a Cilician Obol that was owned by Hans von Aulock and Leo Mildenberg:



Since they share Hans von Aulock in common, now I have a social network that connects all three collectors across two coins:



And you just keep finding connections to build up from there. Certain collections, like Hans von Aulock's, tend to be connected to many others, suggesting he was an especially important figure in numismatic scholarship (since these are all published collections). He owned all four of the coins below, all of which also had other collectors:



The hard parts are (1) finding enough coins with multiple notable prior collectors, and (2) finding ones that overlap.

My biggest network now has something like 70 interconnected collections.

If you research lost provenances, it’s very useful to know which collections tended to flow into one another and which ones were especially influential. (For example, something like 25% of the Levante coins came from the von Aulock Collection. So, anytime I see a Levante coin for sale, I check SNG von Aulock. A few others, too.)

 

I love the Kevin Bacon network. You noted that you hope to have all of your coins interconnected at some point. That got me curious. Do all of your coins have a named provenance? Even if so how do you handle the collections that are sold with a collection name only?

For example, I have several coins that are from named collections that I have only the name. Roma is particularly notorious for this. However, I have no doubt that these coins have spent time in a collection. Some prominent examples;

• L. Rose Collection
• Z.P. (Austria)

Do you simply steer away from these unsubstantiated collections?

For reference the coins from the collections I mentioned are shown below.

 

"Z.P."

is the Austrian coin dealer Zeno Pop. (Zeno Pop is a proper name, not a nickname or abbreviation!)​

"L. Rose"

hundreds of RIC bronze & silver, sold at Roma e-sale 61 in 2019.
There may be a "Rose, L." member of Brit. Num. Society (website malfunctioning, though). Hard one -- "Rose" is a common numismatic term.
Nothing from quick bibliography check (unless Harvey L. Rose who wrote a 1966 TAMS Journal article about Leper Colony Tokens!). Maybe "Rose, L..." will have authored an article in small newsletter or trade journal...​

There are many shades of anonymity, and many relevant issues of evidence, so I could talk for days on this topic! But I'll try to restrain myself...to a degree....

There's usually something to find out, even if minimal. I investigate the same way:

who sold the collection? what were the "contents"?
when, where, from whom did the collector buy their coins?
what other collections are they connected to (both "before" and "after")?
were any of the coins published in the literature and where? what did the publications say (possibly even a personal name)?​

I always create a descriptive summary for every collection, named or (semi)anonymous. Here's a typical one that I edited and posted in my Provenance Glossary online:

CRESCENT COLLECTION
Anonymous collection (prob. American), formed c. 2003-2019 (mostly from US & UK dealers). Sold by CNG beginning primarily with Greek (34 single lots, plus 3 ancient groups & 18 world) in e-Auction 483 (6 Jan 2021); then 46 lots of mostly RRC in EA 485 (10 Feb 2021); 5 Lots of Hadrian RPC Silver in EA 486; and mostly RIC in EAs 493, 503, and 509.
[ACSearch: 139 Lots Ancient Coins, 33 Modern, 3 Lots Antiquities]
Coins: ΣΤΑΣΙΩΝ Drachm (Ashton 59b) [on ACSearch] ; Hadrian Aegeae Tetradrachm (LM 117) [on ACSearch] ; Carinus “Captive” Antoninianus​

Some names become known later. (NAC & Naville's "Mentor Collection" = George Muller. Stack's "the Demarete Collection" = the Clain-Stefanelli Coll.)

Or, sometimes you're the one who finds out who:

For example, "the Lampasas Collection." I searched my usual sources (obituaries, memberships, newsletters, etc.) & learned who the collector was. Lampasas turns out to be a place name -- not a big one; an ancient coin collector died there shortly before the coins were sold.

He wasn't personally well-known in the numismatic world, so it doesn't add much to name him publicly. For others, like "Man in Love with Art" (Sheik Al-Thani) it does, so sometimes I do, as long it doesn't seem to violate their wishes. (Consequently, I leave BCD anonymous in public, but name PRF & RBW, who didn't mind being recognized as Franke & Witschonke.)

Still not sure "how secret" to keep Collection sans Pareille (a couple dealers named her but Nomos strictly did not). In that case, CsP is more like the title of a work, since she had other collections (Alan Walker did say, during the first auction, that the appropriately titled "Exceptional Private Collection" at Leu 76 in 1999 was hers too).

​

I do have lots of minimally provenanced coins, especially ones I bought before I cared/knew it mattered, esp. 1980s-2010. Someday I may sell those and just cut down to a "Kevin Bacon network" of a couple hundred favorites.

That's pretty much what Andrew McCabe did, although he still has an extraordinarily extensive collection of Republicans. (He sold everything that didn't have a 1970 provenance, though he let just a couple of those slip out unbeknownst, which I hope to buy whenever they reappear!)

 

You are an inspirational collector, my friend. I greatly admire your collecting style and willingness to share your research.

 

@Curtis , I bought the single-copy lot of Klein. I wasn't able to participate live. It was my only acquisition from the auction.

 

@Ed Snible -- You have no idea how glad I am to hear that! We "spoke" about how hard it is to find Klein a couple years ago (here or Reddit, where I'm u/kungfupossum). My plan was to contact you if I had been able to acquire 2 copies to see if you still needed a copy. (I would've kept the inscribed one, of course -- what a treasure!)

This was one of two books I wished I had bid higher on (the other being the inscribed P.R. Franke Festschrift), but knowing that it ended up with you, I'm actually very happy I did not!

 

REALLY LUCKY BOOK FIND !!!
I spent most of the year looking for a copy of Lindgren Volume III. I not only found one but it was extremely cheap, $32 + free shipping, and it's in perfect condition. The book usually sales for $150 or more plus shipping.

 

Well done! They make a fantastic set. Internet resources have taken over a lot of their functions, but clearly a lot of people still find Lindgren useful, since copies are always still in great demand!