Head, Barclay Vincent (1887)
Book Summary
The First Edition of Head’s Historia Numorum Head, Barclay V. HISTORIA NUMORUM: A MANUAL OF GREEK NUMISMATICS. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1887. First edition. 4to, original brown quarter morocco, gilt; front board lettered and decorated in gilt; top page edges gilt. lxxix, (1), 807, (1) pages; 400 text illustrations; tables; 5 plates. Occasional annotations. Binding rubbed and shaken, with some looseness; very good. The first edition of this landmark work. Though revised editions of numismatic books are usually preferred, sometimes it pays to consult the earlier editions. In the revised and enlarged 1911 edition of Historia Numorum, the author himself allowed that “(i)t is possible that, among those who are familiar only in a general way with the old edition of this work, there may be some who, on comparing with it the present revised edition, will, at first sight, be inclined to think that some portions of what has been omitted were of greater interest than what has been added.” A 1927 Spink catalogue emphasized that aspect of the 1887 work: “Some portions of the first edition of very great interest were omitted from the second, and this fact added to the usefulness of the work in itself makes a copy of that edition well worth acquiring especially by the young collector.” Clain-Stefanelli 1832*, citing the second edition. Daehn 90.
