Chapman, S.H. & H. CATALOGUE OF THE SPLENDID COLLECTION OF UNITED STATES COINS OF M.A. BROWN, ESQ., EAST NORTHFIELD, MASS. Philadelphia: Davis & Harvey, April 16-17, 1897. 8vo, original gilt-printed white paper covers. 56, 7, (1) pages; 1261 lots; original printed prices realized list bound in. [bound with] FOUR FINE PHOTOGRAPHIC REPRODUCTIONS OF THE ORIGINAL PROOF PLATES. 8 by 10 inch plates, mounted on linen sheets with tissue guards. 4to, modern white half leatherette; spine lettered in gilt. Letter from Del Bland to Armand Champa, dated 1-17-92, laid in. Original paper covers with a few light chips; near fine. Adams 51, rated A- overall: "3 RRR gold patterns. Gold proof sets. Proof 1840 $1. MS chain 1¢ (3). Discovery S-53. XF 1799 1¢. MS 1823 1¢. Proof 1820 1¢." With better luck, the M.A. Brown sale would have been the first Chapman catalogue issued with actual photographic prints as plates (all of the earlier Chapman sale plates had been produced by various photographic printing processes). Government regulations restricting the visual reproduction of coins and currency were the villain. John J. Ford, Jr., in the August, 1950 issue of The Numismatist, provides background: "Shortly before the turn of the century, the Chapmans ran into some trouble with the Federal Government concerning the extremely high quality of their photographic plates. After quite a little political intervention, Henry Chapman became the father of legislation permitting authorized dealers to fully illustrate their wares. S.H. Chapman had a great interest in photography and personally composed and photographed the plates for many of the large sale catalogs." The controversy, unfortunately, resulted in the firm issuing no illustrated catalogues for nearly a decade until, with the appearance of the 1904 Mills sale, the Chapmans abandoned forever the use of photographic printing processes to produce plates and utilized actual photographic prints in their illustrated sale catalogues. According to Jack Collins, the M.A. Brown sale photographic glass negatives were seized by the Government, but not before two sets of proof prints had been made. The plates of one set were cut in half to fit in a copy of the catalogue. The other, intact, set was acquired by Collins who made two sets of photographic reproductions, and the set offered here is derived from one of those sets. While many of the images are imperfect, most of them do an adequate job of conveying the quality of the cents being offered, 88 obverses and reverses of which are depicted on the four plates. The copy of the catalogue is the special post-sale edition. Ex Armand Champa Library (Davis/Bowers Sale Part IV, lot 3241); ex Money Tree Sale 29, lot 236; ex David Sklow Sale 16, lot 14; ex Cardinal Collection Library.