Rare Work on Washington Buttons

Cobb, J. Harold. GEORGE WASHINGTON INAUGURAL BUTTONS & MEDALETS, 1789 & 1793. Hamden: Private Printing, 1963. (1), 37 leaves, printed on rectos only; 1 fine photographic plate. [bound with] Cobb, J. Harold. ADDITIONAL FACTS ON GEORGE WASHINGTON INAUGURAL BUTTONS & MEDALETS, 1789 & 1793. Hamden: Private Printing, 1964. (4) pages. Two works, bound in one volume with the following additional material: two 1963 letters (one handwritten, the other typewritten, both signed in ink) from the author to Nathan Eglit; a photographically printed frontispiece depicting Washington with several inaugural buttons; one sheet with handwritten captions onto which have been pasted 18 clipped photographs depicting various Washington inaugural buttons [two additional photos have become detached and lost]. 4to, later blue cloth, gilt; original printed card covers of both works bound in. Foreword signed by the author and ink-stamped 114. Near fine. The two printed works are rarely offered: John Ford acquired his copies the year after publication and paid a princely $150 for them, and they didn’t include the additional materials supplementing this volume. Carefully researched and issued in a very small edition, the work was not offered for sale but was presented to friends of the author interested in the topic. Cobb’s foreword bears repeating: “A collector who shall remain nameless wrote in 1953 as follows: ‘Economically, each of us acts like a Robinson Crusoe on his own little island of interest—we fail to arouse the interest of new people and thus encourage competition for ourselves. Each guards his own particular island of interest. Yet, unless such competition is encouraged, who will appreciate his collection? Who will know anything of the vast amount of information one has acquired about the subject he collects and each of the pieces in his collection? Usually the collector dies with his knowledge lost. This is perhaps the most serious loss of all—this loss of knowledge—because often the collector’s sources of knowledge are also dead.’ This is the basic reason for this compilation of facts, presented herein.” Ex Nathan Eglit Library; ex Kolbe Sale 10, lot 2465; acquired in 2007 for $500 from Joe Levine.