Original Photographic Record of the Gillet Cabinet

[Gillet, Charles]. PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORD OF THE CHARLES GILLET COLLECTION. 4to, full tan morocco; front cover with inset panel lettered in black; spine with six raised bands, lettered in black. 58 original photographic plates [29 by 20.5 cm], bound in one hinged with glassine guards, depicting the entire collection of Charles Gillet, comprising some 1217 coins. Binding rubbed and discolored; title panel with misspelling; photographs fine. A highly important record of this collection, 253 highlights of which were sold in 1974 by Bank Leu and Münzen und Medaillen as the Kunstfreundes collection. One of the most important collections of ancient Greek coins to be sold in the 20th century. While good-quality reproductions of these plates have been made and bring high prices on the secondary market, these original photographs are of considerably higher quality and are very rare. (For more on Gillet, see Alan S. Walker’s enjoyable article, “Catalogues and Their Collectors,” in the 2008 volume of the American Journal of Numismatics.)