George Kolbe writes:

Charlie Davis writes:

John passed away on 26 June in a hospice, not far from his home in centralLondon - Cancer had been diagnosed a few months ago, and he will beremembered for his cheerfulness, generosity of spirit, reliability, and basicgood-heartedness.

For many years to come the numismatic world will be grateful to him for hisremarkable and indispensable - I don't use these adjectives lightly - AncientCoin Auction Catalogues 1880-1980, published in 2009 (Reviewed by AlanWalker in Schweizerische Numismatische Rundschau 89, 2010, pp. 277-280).

Over the years, I got to know John very well indeed, and more especially inmore recent times when he started to deal in numismatic literature. He hadpreviously collected coins, and slowly these were replaced by the literature ofthe subject, especially the sales catalogues.

He became increasingly fascinated by the personalities behind the collectionssold at auction - the collectors, the dealers and the auction houses. During hisvisits to Spinks in the 1980s and 1990, we would discuss the famous collectorsof the past, named and unnamed. With his computer-processing background -his first job in 1960 was with IBM, as a systems' analyst - he started to organisethe information, and to form an important collection of illustrated salescatalogues. This work resulted in his major Bibliography, and on and off, it tookJohn almost 30 years.

John didn't like to fly - I am not sure he ever did fly - and he travelled all overEurope by train, often with his bicycle on board. He rented left-luggage lockersin railway stations all over the Continent, where he deposited boxes of booksready to be hauled to coin fairs for sale; he worked hard at this for a number ofyears, and he loved every minute of the time he spent doing it.

He had one badexperience in France - at gunpoint police arrested him for a short time on atrain, for "smuggling"- apparently for not "declaring" duty-free books.... andput him off the train... imagine him sitting on the station in the middle ofFrance, surrounded with his books and not much else. I don't think he everforgave the French police, and I am not sure if he ever travelled through Franceagain by train.

John and I attended many of the well-known auctions of numismatic libraries -often he would spend days viewing lots, and adding to his ever-increasingdatabase: the M & M (Basle) sales of the 1980s; the Werkner library sale SpinkTaisei, (1993) and the Sotheby sale of the Furstenberg library, (1982) both soldin Zurich. Just the remnants, but still a massive library, of the famous Dutchdealership, Jacques Schulman, was sold in Frankfurt/Main in 1995. Theenormous Rollin and Feuardent library, the Kampmann (Maison Platt), and theEtienne Page libraries were all sold in Paris between the years 1989-2003. Johnwas at all these sales - in his element, and loving the thrill of auctions and thesocialising, often with people he had corresponded with and previously not met.John Bergman attended one such sale, and George Kolbe was at almost all ofthese noted.

He would usually stay in the cheapest possible hotel - or hostel - that he couldfind, and would delight in inviting a few of us to a back-street restaurant (oftenat a hike of a couple of miles) he had found where the food was fantastic, butthe price less than a third of what you might expect to pay. An additional"game" that John liked to play- searching out the cheapest of places.

Domenico Rossi's sale of his huge collection of auction catalogues, and MarcoOlivari's impressive library were sold in Pavia in 2003-2005. I had been offeredthe Rossi collection en bloc - but I think John was relieved when I told him Iwasn't able to buy it, since he would then have missed the fun of an auction andthe socialising....!

One of the most impressive libraries to have be sold at auction was that ofMunzen und Medaillen AG, Basle, Kunker, Osnabruck, in 2005. I think Johnviewed the sales catalogues in that library for more than a week prior to the sale- the library stayed in Basle, whilst the auction was held in Osnabruck.

Perhaps the most memorable of such sales was the auction of the remainingpart, but still huge - nearly 3000 lots sold over 3 very long days - of the AdolphHess library sold by Peus in Frankfurt/Main in 1991. In his inimitable way, afterthe sale, John listed ALL the attendees at the auction. In room 1 he named the30 or so "German speakers" - in room 2, there were 25 or so "Englishspeakers", and in room 3, there were 4 or 5 "others"..... Peus conducted thewhole sale simultaneously in German and English, and in French and Italianwhen required.

A few months ago, John presented me with his own annotated sale room copyof the catalogue of the Hess library sale - falling to pieces - and said: "... youhad better have this, since you're the only person who will understand what it isall about!".