The Medallic History Of The United States Of America, 1776-1876. Volume II: Plates

Folio, later matching blue cloth; red morocco spine labels, gilt; top page edges gilt. lxix, (1), 478, 8; xvi pages; titles printed in red and black; 170 finely engraved etchings of medals by Jules Jacquemart on 86 plates with tissue guards. Near fine. Inscribed in ink on the blank leaf preceding the first half-title: "Edward L. Burlingame Esq., from his friend J.F. Loubat, New York, June 9th, 1878." An original set of perhaps the most lavishly executed work on American numismatics ever published. The author relates in the introductory text "that Mr. Jefferson, as early as 1789, entertained the idea of publishing an account of all American medals, struck up to that time," but it remained for Loubat to publish the first extensive work on the topic. In 1908, the American Journal of Numismatics noted: "His sumptuous work on the Official Medals struck by the authority of the United States marked an epoch in our medallic history." Clain-Stefanelli 15073*. Davis 631.