VERY SPECIAL SALE (SORT OF PRE-SALE SALE) GROUP OF FIVE COLUMBIAN MEDALS! #1185

Description

I hope the photos are high enough quality to give you an idea of the condition of these five pieces. This is not a "blow it out" lot of items by any means. They're all circulated and you can judge the amount of wear. I think the photos are pretty accurate regarding appearance, color, etc.
We're listing the group for a buy it now price of only .99, or just per medal! I would think more than one potential buyer would jump on this opportunity to grab the medals for only each.
Still, if no one does that quickly enough, surely someone else might well be anxious to open the bidding at or just per medal.
The brightest medal by far is a prooflike uncirculated example of the centennial (1937) medal from the Peacock company in Chicago. It features interesting key events/people on the medal. First, the founding brothers, but also the Ferris Wheel from the Columbian Expo and a small bit of black metal. No, not a meteor that struck their offices but rather a piece of their vault/safe that was destroyed in the great Chicago fire. While not from the fair per se, it often shows up surrounded by WCE medals--as here.
The large and pretty dark medal is interestingly fairly scarce but always, it seems, priced as if it were very common, certainly more than it is. The company is advertising its new and superior copper wire in 1893. It is difficult to read the small print especially since the medal is quite dark.
One of the smaller bronze pieces is a Masonic penny token from the Columbus Chapter in Minneapolis founded in 1893. I don't have expertise in the Masons; I know it was a really big family deal when my grandfather became a 32nd degree Scottish Rite....and that the chapters issued their own pennies (for what purpose I'm uncertain). This one, while not directly from the fair as best I can tell, was included in John Kennel's Columbian collection (that included nearly 1,000 medals and tokens!) because of 1) the 1893 date and 2) it is the Columbian chapter. It is worthy of note that it was founded at the conclusion of the world's fair and could well have been somehow have been connected or perhaps founded by participants in the Columbian Expo. It's worthy of researrch if you have strong interest in Masonic material.
Finally, two medals are a pair I've always found quite interesting. They're somewhat scarce and I've seen much speculation over the years as to the significance of the obverse design with perhaps Columbus as a boy seated overlooking the fair grounds. The reverse is also a bit of a conundrum.
It reads "Manufactured only by/Thompson/Willis & Newgent/Boston Mass." That's pretty straighforward. But I wonder what item is manufactured only them. In the back of my mind I somewhere did some research and found that the company was a clothier--but that is merely a quite old vague memory so don't quote it! That's the way incorrect historical information gets started should my rcollection be incorrect.
Just as an aside that I'm sure all Columbian collectors will appreciate, the "Day of Sale" tickets have imprint numbers of 1 through 6. Somewhere, someone, perhaps beginning in 1980 with the Doolin ticket booklet, decided that the numbers represented the six months of the fair and were used with the appropriate number in successive months that athe fair operated.
In my 2017 history of the Midway I revealed information that refuted this information that was repeated thousands of times such that virtually all ticket collectors took it as fact. Naturally, it was never verified but some at least 40+ years ago made what seemed a logical deduction; for decades it was quoted as fact.
In reality, ALL of the number and letter combinations used on teh Day of Sale tickets were randomly selected to discourage any possible counterfeiting or attempts at reusing a ticket on a subsequent day. That information has been out in the world of Columibana since immediately after the fair should anyone have cared to find it. Higinbotham in his post fair summary of all the facts and figures of the World's Columbian Exposition mentioned this fact.
Being a rather nerdy and intense historical researcher, I've read and reread the information in that book and used it in my first two books about the fair and will use additional material in my forthcoming 2021 third book. I've even begun nto consider writing/publishing what would amount to a summary and publication of key data in Higinbotham's publication. I don't know if it would make financial sense but I do know that some times one has to force feed very thick historical data to collectors as most are not going to pick up a 400-page book like this one as casual evening reading.
In fact, as I digress, I doubt more than a few buyers on Ebay will have read this entire conglomeration of details!
Special September World's Fair and Americana Sale & Auction
It will include not only dozens of World's Columbian Expo lots, but rarities from a dozen fairs, including the first-ever world's far (the London Crystal Palace in 1851) and the first US fair that followed in New York just two years later (also called the Crystal Palace). I thought perhaps you could use even more "interesting" information.
Besides both fixed price lots and auction items (we're still cataloging and photographing and have now gone past the 250-lot mark--more than 300 items-- and we're not done yet!) featuring world's fair medals, printed items, tickets and souvenirs, we will also have a terrific collection from the post-Civil War to the 1880s from the Eastman Business College in New York, founded by that same Eastman fellow who brought us Eastman Kodak! Also included are gem US coins and Civil War items.
We're obviously very excited about the breadth of material in the upcoming sale and between now and then we'll be selling some items specifically listed at SALE prices to remind you that the sale is coming. These two medals are part of the more than 800 medals from the John Kennel Collection, which we have been selling for 2 years and are approaching its conclusion. Between the Kennel Collection and our other sales
we have sold in excess of 5,000 Columbian items in just the last 24 months.
My 3rd Book About the Columbian Expo
And since I'm in a mood to share information on History Bank plans, we're also working on the aforementioned 3rd World's Columbian book of mine.
Columbian Rarities
is coming along well and we hope to have copies available by December. It will include the rarest of items from the expo, with photos and information about the items, their historical sales prices and more--medals, tickets, ephemera and other souvenirs. It will be the most comprehensive and first of its kind book to be published about the Columbian Expo. Many of the items included in our September sale will be featured in the book, which includes an article about the ubiquitous Landing Scene images featured on so many Columbian medals.
For more information on our sale--the various fairs and other material to be included as its compiled--and for more details on our book, including ordering information as soon as the specifications are completed--please just ask; get a headstart rather than waiting until we post information. The book will include
200+ color photographs
, in-depth articles and discussions about how rare "rare" is. We expect Columbian collectors to be familiar with some of the items but likely not the details that will be included, and I'm sure that even the most seasoned veterans of Columbian collecting will find a surprisingly large number of unique pieces and others you've never encountered.
In several previous listings about the book (much like this one!) I noted that "I estimate that the John Kennel Collection featured 150+ previously unlisted (in Eglit or HK) medals and tickets (Doolin);"
it has been a truly amazing two years in which we have been representing the Kennel family and both the sale and the book will highlight his immense contributions to knowledge about the 1893 world's fair.
As I continue to work on the book (and the forthcoming sale) I guess I was wrong--I have now noted that Kennel had more like 200 unlisted medals and while I haven't counted, perhaps 35-45 unlisted tickets/passes. It's been truly amazing. To consider that one collection could have 250 unlisted (and for the most part unknown!) items simply floored me when I realized it.
It's difficult to contain my enthusiasm when I'm so involved with the sale and the book and seeing both take shape. My three Columbian books represent years of work and probably even exceed the time spent on our seven-book Civil War series, which remains the largest publishing venture and multi-book series I've written and/or developed over more than 40 years. I hope you're familiar with my two previous Columbian books published in 1993 and 2017. The first remains available in a limited number of hardcovers and is also still in print in softcover 28 years after its debut; the 2017 book (both are from the U of Illinois Press) was the first of its kind dedicated solely to the Midway Plaisance.
For those of you dedicated enough to read this far, I'd like to extend a special discount on my WCE books--hardcover of the first and softcover on the second. Just drop me an email and I'll post a special listing for you on Ebay for either book at only postpaid!
And while you're at it, if you just ask I will send you a coupon worth cash off any purchase you make in our Sept. 1 sale!
Please do keep in touch so we can share updates on both projects and by all means, do take advantage of this special offer on my Columbian books.
Norm Bolotin, The History Bank