I just received my copies of the latest Kuenker auction catalogs for their upcoming sales in early April and included with them was a special publication entitled "Origins of the German Coin Trade: The Hamburger and Schlessinger Families - A German-Jewish story of the fortunate rise and tragic end of the most important coin trading dynasty before the Second World War." I was aware of the Hamburger name as they were active for many years and often listed in early 20th century provenances, but I knew little of their story and even less of the related "spin-off" firm of Schlessinger. In brief, after WWI Leo Hamburger brought in his nephew Felix Schlessinger as partner and potential successor to their well-established coin business in Frankfurt, which unfortunately suffered and declined during the terrible inflation of the 1920s. Felix therefore set out to Berlin in 1928 to establish his own successful firm until 1936 when, with the rise of National Socialism, his family emigrated to the Netherlands. However, with the German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940 their reprieve was short-lived, and both Felix and his wife Hedwig were sent to Auschwitz where they died in 1944. Their sons Paul and Max escaped and eventually made their way to Israel and the USA respectively. Max Schlessinger, now with his Americanized name of Mark Salton, took up a New York banking career but also continued his family's legacy of coin sales. Taking advantage of depressed coin prices in the immediate post-war years he gathered an impressive array of material, which though originally serving as business stock, eventually evolved into the nucleus of his own personal collection. Max Schlessinger/Mark Salton died in 2005 and with the passing of his wife Lottie in 2020, their immense collection of ancient and European coins are being auctioned by both Stack's & Bowers in the USA and Kuenker in Germany. I do not receive catalogs from Stack's and only receive Kuenker's that are related to ancients so I am unfortunately a bit late to the party's start, but the sale schedule is listed as follows: Part I - Ancient Greek, Polish, & Russian coins (Stack's, Jan 16, 2022) Part II - European gold coins (Kuenker, Mar 22, 2022) Part III - English coins (Stack's, Aug 22, 2022) Part IV - Roman & Byzantine coins (Kuenker, Sept 2022) Part V - Ancient Greek & English coins (Stack's, Jan 2023) Part VI - European silver coins (Kuenker, Jan 2023) I understand that Kolbe & Fanning previously auctioned off the Schlessinger/Salton numismatic library in Sept 2021. Regarding Kuenker's current publication of the families' extended history, I have only been able to leaf through it so far, but it is beautifully produced, well illustrated, and contains a wealth of fantastic personal information. The highlight I think is a full facsimile reproduction of Max/Mark's 32 page type-written recollection of memories covering the events of his turbulent lifetime. I am interested in Roman and Early Medieval coins, and so I eagerly await the Kuenker sale in September, but I think this is a fascinating reference book and would recommend it to anyone interested in numismatic history. I don't see it listed on their website but I'm sure an email to Kuenker could produce a copy for those of you not on their mailing list.
