EXHIBIT OF COLLECTOR BOOKS & SALE CATALOGUES
On view at the Horological Society of New York will be an exhibit of nearly 200 single-owner auction and exhibition catalogues and books devoted to specific horological collectors who have passed on. These publications now form an important part of the new HSNY library. They originally required days and weeks to prepare by experts, scholars, and the collectors themselves. Many of them feature numerous pages of descriptive text and detailed full-color photographs, and some truly qualify as textbooks of horology. As the enticing images illustrate below, each merits close study.
Dating back to the early 20th Century, most are from the immense book and ephemera collection recently donated to the HSNY by Fortunat Mueller-Maerki. He had them hardbound when necessary to preserve them. Not only will this exhibition pay tribute to him and to the important past collectors being honored during the symposium program, but it also will alert present-day collectors and scholars that these resources now are available for historical and provenance research.
Copies may exist elsewhere, but never before and nowhere else have these materials been brought together for public use in this organized comprehensive manner. This is one more way that the new HSNY library will serve horology enthusiasts worldwide.
The exhibit is created by HSNY's Exhibit Curator, Bob Frishman, who also originated the first two exhibits in HSNY's rooms during the past three years. More exhibit information is here.
For more than five years, he wrote detailed auction catalogue descriptions and condition reports for R.O. Schmitt Fine Arts - later Schmitt Horan - one of the world's oldest and largest clock-and-watch auction firms. He has authored more than 70 horology-related articles published by Maine Antique Digest, NAWCC Bulletin, Antiquarian Horology, and Antiques & The Arts Weekly; mostly reports on horology auctions, books, and exhibitions.
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)