Editions of the Edward Cogan Levick Sale Catalog (1859)

Lara Jacobs, the Internet Archive scanner working at ANS under sponsorship of Newman Portal, recently called to our attention an alternate edition of the J.N.T. Levick auction sale catalog. We were previously aware of a 976-lot post-sale, priced edition. Lara located an unpriced, 973-lot version in the ANS library. The Levick collection represented Cogan's fifth sale; the previous four catalogs are all known by post-sale, priced editions produced by Attinelli.

The Gengerke and Adams bibliographies are the first resources to consult. Adams reports the 973-lot version, however, his 2001 errata notes "Should be 976 lots." Gengerke noted only the 976-lot version. This writer's copy of the Attinelli bibliography is best described as "6 over 3," in which case the printer seems to have etched a 6 over the final digit of the lot count. However, Attinelli makes an important clarification: "This catalog was reprinted after the sale with the prices printed in," the key word being reprinted. The confirms the two versions of the catalog.

The catalogs differ in several respects. There are different covers, and the printer's name is given on the earlier version but not the final version. There are a few anomalies (typos?) in the earlier version, including lot 30, which is not present. Lots 627 and 907 have multiple listings. An 1840 proof half cent (lot 505 in the final version) is not present in the pre-sale edition. For the Levick sale, this earlier, 973-lot version is considerably scarcer. A contemporary collector would have found the post-sale, priced edition more useful and would have had little reason to preserve the original. Indeed, besides the ANS copy, we could find only a single instance of the 973-lot version, from Kolbe 67 (October 1996), lot 554. Kolbe noted in part "lots priced in pencil with buyers' names and other annotations, including listings of several additional lots sold at the sale."

A final clarification is that the 976-lot version comes in both "large paper" and regular size formats. A complete set is thus comprised of three separate editions. Thanks to Dan Hamelberg, David Hill, and Jim Neiswinter for assistance in preparing this note.

David Fanning adds:

Link to J. N. T. Levick catalog (post-sale priced edition):
https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=19&AuctionId=511989

Link to J. N. T. Levick catalog (pre-sale edition, ANS copy):
https://archive.org/details/pricedcatalogueo00coga_21