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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Curtis, post: 8278802, member: 26430&quot;]Sorry, didn&#039;t see this until now, it&#039;s a good question, glad [USER=79368]@Barry Murphy[/USER] chimed in with some great institutional knowledge about Vinchon being one of the last holdouts (didn&#039;t know that). I&#039;d also love to know what happened to all the old casts from European auctions.</p><p><br /></p><p>On the question of fakery, I also figured that fakes from plaster or sulfur casts wouldn&#039;t be very effective given that imperfections multiply over each generation of reproduction, and it&#039;d be massively more efficient to use real coins or electrotypes, etc. (as people do). I guess it&#039;s probably been done at some point.</p><p><br /></p><p>I don&#039;t know of any biblio of which exact auctions used casts but it would be interesting. I was just basing my opinion on having looked at all the (digitized) plates of that catalog (they &quot;look like&quot; cast photos), and general experience with old catalogs. There are, however, some nice articles about the history of numismatic photography in this period out there. [A couple below from my biblio file.]</p><p><br /></p><p>John Spring (2009) had enough on his plate I guess, so it&#039;d be unfair to ask for more of him: I did check his wonderful book <i><b>Ancient Coin Auction Catalogs 1880-1980</b></i> (London: Spink); I don&#039;t think he specifically mentions cast or type of photography for each catalog (and he apparently missed this Vinchon sale completely).</p><p><br /></p><p>David Fanning&#039;s (2020) excellent book on <a href="https://archive.org/details/AncientCoinsInEarlyAmericanAuctions/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://archive.org/details/AncientCoinsInEarlyAmericanAuctions/" rel="nofollow"><b><i>Ancient Coins in Early American Auctions, 1869-1939</i></b></a> (Gahanna, OH: Kolbe &amp; Fanning) has more discussion of photography (but fewer catalogs annotated). As he notes, American collectors and dealers were always much less willing to accept casts in photography, so the catalogs used photos of coins themselves from the start. I thought that volume was worth buying in hardback (especially since they&#039;ll send a signed copy) but it&#039;s also available on archive.org above. (He also has an hourlong conference presentation available.)</p><p><br /></p><p>I also gave some thoughts/annotations on Spring &amp; Fanning and related sources here: <a href="https://cointalk.com/posts/8243266" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://cointalk.com/posts/8243266" rel="nofollow">cointalk.com/posts/8243266</a> ; and here (later in same thread): <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/posts/8243859" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/posts/8243859">cointalk.com/posts/8243859</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Some more on history of numismatic photography/illustration:</p><blockquote><p><font size="4"><b>Hollard</b>, Dominique (1991) “L&#039;illustration numismatique au XIXe siècle.” <i>Revue Numismatique</i>&nbsp; (Année 1991), 6th Series, Vol. 33:&nbsp; pp. 7-42 &amp; pl. I-III (separate). <a href="https://www.persee.fr/doc/numi_0484-8942_1991_num_6_33_1952" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.persee.fr/doc/numi_0484-8942_1991_num_6_33_1952" rel="nofollow">https://www.persee.fr/doc/numi_0484-8942_1991_num_6_33_1952</a></font></p><p><font size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font size="4"><b>Hoover, </b>Oliver D (2012) “<a href="https://www.academia.edu/28753342/Paper_Plaster_Sulfur_Foil_A_Brief_History_of_Numismatic_Data_Transmission" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.academia.edu/28753342/Paper_Plaster_Sulfur_Foil_A_Brief_History_of_Numismatic_Data_Transmission" rel="nofollow">Paper, Plaster, Sulfur, Foil: A Brief History of Numismatic Data</a>” <i>ANS Magazine</i> (Spring 2012), pp. 18-26. [.pdf avail on Academia / 28753342]</font></p><p><font size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font size="4"><b>Kraft</b>, Jesse (2021) “The Acrylic Slides of William Guild.” <i>ANS Magazine</i> (Fall 2021, Issue 3), pp. 28-41.&nbsp; [Not yet online?]</font></p><p><font size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font size="4">See also CT Threads 382322 &amp; 359252 (<a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/tribute-to-leon-dardel.382322/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/tribute-to-leon-dardel.382322/">Tribute to Leon Dardel</a> &amp; <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/tribute-to-henry-cohen.359252/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/tribute-to-henry-cohen.359252/">TRIBUTE TO HENRY COHEN</a>). There are also excellent posts on relevant topics at FAC but I don&#039;t know the etiquette for linking those here...</font></p></blockquote><p>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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