Comparing one of my provenanced coins to old auction catalog plate photos

[filolif]

Here's a gif I made comparing my Siculo-Punic Tetradrachm to photos from a couple auction catalogs where it was featured.

1929: Rodolfo Ratto (Lugano), Auction 18, 24, lot 544
1931: Glendining & Co. Ltd. - B. A. Seaby Ltd., Auction III, lot 1183
2023: Roma E-Sale 105, lot 38

I find it really interesting that casts were used for the photos which accounts for the slight variation in appearance. Does anyone have more information on this? Why they did it? Where these casts ended up? Anyone have one?

[DonnaML]

41 minutes ago, filolif said:

Here's a gif I made comparing my Siculo-Punic Tetradrachm to photos from a couple auction catalogs where it was featured.

1929: Rodolfo Ratto (Lugano), Auction 18, 24, lot 544
1931: Glendining & Co. Ltd. - B. A. Seaby Ltd., Auction III, lot 1183
2023: Roma E-Sale 105, lot 38

I find it really interesting that casts were used for the photos which accounts for the slight variation in appearance. Does anyone have more information on this? Why they did it? Where these casts ended up? Anyone have one?

Plaster casts were supposedly easier to photograph than the actual coins in a way that showed all the details regardless of the brightness or glare or shadows or toning, etc.

[Roman Collector]

1 hour ago, filolif said:

Here's a gif I made comparing my Siculo-Punic Tetradrachm to photos from a couple auction catalogs where it was featured.

1929: Rodolfo Ratto (Lugano), Auction 18, 24, lot 544
1931: Glendining & Co. Ltd. - B. A. Seaby Ltd., Auction III, lot 1183
2023: Roma E-Sale 105, lot 38

I find it really interesting that casts were used for the photos which accounts for the slight variation in appearance. Does anyone have more information on this? Why they did it? Where these casts ended up? Anyone have one?

That's cool!! I love the overlays! The only coin in my collection with such a provenance is this one. It was formerly owned by Clarence Bement (1843-1923):


Julia Domna, AD 193-217
Roman orichalcum dupondius; 10.61 gm, 24.2 mm
Rome, issue 6, AD 195
Obv: IVLIA DOMNA AVG, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: FECVNDITAS, Fecunditas enthroned right, nursing one child, second child stands before her.
Refs: RIC 844; BMCRE 494; Cohen 43; Hill 126; RCV 6639
Notes: Ex Ars Classica VIII, 1924, Bement Collection, lot 1184. Die-match to BMCRE-494, pl. 21.4.

It appears in Ars Classica VIII, 1924, Bement Collection, lot 1184. Here's the listing from that auction:



 

[DonnaML]

@filolif, here's an interesting article that discusses plaster casts, among other methods historically used to reproduce images of coins: https://www.academia.edu/28753342/Paper_Plaster_Sulfur_Foil_A_Brief_History_of_Numismatic_Data_Transmission . Regarding your question about whether any old plaster casts still exist, the article notes that the ANS alone has more than 50,000 of them in its collection. And I occasionally see groups of them for sale.

This link discusses the method of making plaster casts: https://www.ias.edu/ideas/casting-new-light-history-archaeological-research-ias . See also https://www.coinbooks.org/v21/esylum_v21n42a21.html .

And here's a Coin Talk comment touching on plaster casts, posted by Curtis last year in a thread of mine about my Valentinian I solidus with an old Maison Vinchon provenance: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/a-new-solidus-valentinian-i.394127/page-3#post-8277729 . He notes, among other things, that "Vinchon made casts of every coin and then photographed them for the plates, as was the custom in European catalogs through at least the 1970s. (American firms favored direct photos of coins from the very beginning, in the 19th century.)"

 

 

Edited March 5, 2023 by DonnaML