Deluxe Edition Comitia Americana with Fleury Plate

Adams, John W. and Anne E. Bentley. COMITIA AMERICANA AND RELATED MEDALS: UNDERAPPRECIATED MONUMENTS TO OUR HERITAGE—A LEAF BOOK. Crestline: George Frederick Kolbe, 2007. 8vo, light brown full morocco; spine with leather spine label, gilt. 351, (1) pages printed by letter-press on fine paper; 57 color plates and an original engraving for J.F. Loubat’s The Medallic History of the United States. Housed in original clamshell box. Inscribed to Martin by Adams. Fine. Perhaps the most luxurious deluxe edition of a numismatic book published in recent years. Limited to 60 copies printed by letterpress by Henry Morris, of Bird & Bull Press. A magnificent production. Citing from the preface: “The regular edition of Comitia Americana and Related Medals has been shaped for the scholar and the collector... The special edition at hand is intended to serve a different purpose. Here, the authors’ objective is to place the reader in a closer relationship with the historical events that are described. To this end, the text of this edition has been prepared by the same letterpress technology in use in the late eighteenth century. The two centuries that lie between the American Revolution and the present day are neatly bridged by the inclusion of a leaf from a book published in 1878. Joseph Florimond Loubat’s Medallic History of the United States is the spiritual ancestor of the present volume. Elegantly printed on sumptuous paper, Loubat’s magnum opus sets a standard of scholarly excellence that has not been matched and to which, immodestly, we aspire. Between the timeless craftsmanship of Bird & Bull Press and the actual leaf from Loubat, the authors seek to reinforce the message that our early medals were intended to convey. It is a noble message. We hope that this special edition will prove a worthy carrier of important memories that comprise our national heritage.” The leaf from Loubat in this copy of the deluxe edition features the 1779 François-Louis Teissèdre de Fleury at Stony Point medal (Betts 566).