THOMAS JAMES CLARKE (1875-1952) ---- He was quite the collector, among other things
1630Boston
Posts: 13,772 ✭✭✭✭✭
I was re reading this book, courtesy of the Newman Numismatic Portal at Washington University, https://nnp.wustl.edu/
And it appears that a lot of the pictured coins are from this mans collection.
THOMAS JAMES CLARKE (1875-1952)
John Lupia submitted the following information from the online draft of his book of numismatic biographies for this week's installment of his series. Thanks! As always, this is an excerpt with the full article and bibliography available online. This week's subject is New York collector T. James Clarke. -Editor
Clarke.Thomas.James Thomas James Clarke (1875-1952), was born on May 7, 1875, at Hastings, Trent Hills, Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada, son of Thomas Borman Clarke (1834-1913), a carpenter, and Clarissa Sweet Clarke (1840-1916).
His birth information is incorrect published in The Numismatist since the above is taken directly from the original sources in Ontario.
In 1894, twenty-one year old Clarke moved to Batavia, New York, where he worked temporarily as a wheelwright for his uncle John M. Sweet in order to establish himself in America.
The following year in 1895, he began to work as a salesman for E. N. Rowell Paper Box Company until 1900.
In 1900, he founded Clarke-Dorman Drug Box Company. He sold his share of ownership in 1902 to William Koehl. Clarke remained with the William Koehl company until 1916.
On June 26, 1912, he married Hazel Clarabel Johnson (1883-1974), daughter of Olaf Johnson, a tailor, at Chautauqua, New York. They had no issue.
clarke 1932 letter to Chapman In 1916, he started T. James Clarke Box and Label Works, Inc.
He also served as the Director of the National Chautauqua County Bank, and also for a few other corporations.
Clarke was also quite inventive and held patents on two cabinets marketed to druggists.
T. J. Clarke was an old time traditional collector, i.e., he collected all the wide variety of items and objects typically found in curiosity cabinets. These cabinets were like the Italian use of the word, a whole room. There he kept and arranged autographs, glassware, Indian relics, postage stamps, coins, paper money, and weapons. Clarke is remembered today among the EAC'ers as a buyer of the French collection of large cents. However, colonial notes, old bank notes, and obsolete paper money are also areas from which collectors today trace provenance on many prized pieces.
He was ANA Life Member No. 37. He served as 20th President of the ANA from August 29, 1935, to August 26, 1937.
He sold his entire collection of silver coins to B. Max Mehl in 1939.
In 1944, he exhibited more than 1,000 Lincoln medals.
He died at home in Jamestown, New York, on July 20, 1952.
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
Comments
Another tidbit regarding T. J. Clarke:
He had a very important collection of large cents, and Ted Naftzger bought the Clarke collection in 1954. Naftzger picked out coins to upgrade his collection, and then dumped what he didn't want. Naftzger used Numismatic Gallery (Abe Kosoff) to do this, and Clark's coins were auctioned off, together with coins belonging to Melish, in 1956. Naftzger's strategy in upgrading his large cent collection was repeated a number of times, and he (and Kosoff) kept Naftzger's name from being associated with a number of auctions of large cents (Naftzger's discards).
The 1837 coin below (now mine) was once in the Clarke and later the Naftzger collections:
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
Interesting. I wonder how hard it would be to add the Naftzger provenance to all the Clarke coins he purchased, and to ensure Clarke is is notes on all the coins Naftzger kept?
Naftzger's large cents were auctioned off in 2008 and 2009 by the Goldbergs. Part of the problem, however, is that Dr. Sheldon is believed to have switched out a few of the former Clarke cents during examinations of Naftzger's collection.
I have a number of former Naftzger coins--they only indicated NAFTZGER on the inserts when I bought them. Working backwards to Clarke would not be too difficult.
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
Mr. Clarke was also a paper money collector. Thanks to him, there are several uncut sheets of National Bank Notes from various Jamestown banks available to collectors today.
Member ANA, SPMC, SCNA, FUN, CONECA
I had this picture saved on my phone that i stumbled across awhile ago, i believe its T.J. Clarke showing off his mass silver.
Wow. Looks like he had slabs! Must have used FFGS (Fred Flintstone Grading Service).
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
Nice historical information.... While provenance of coins is not a focus of mine, I can understand why it is an interesting area....and helps to explain why some very old coins are still in great condition. Coin collecting is an old hobby....and will continue long after all of us....Cheers, RickO
Great looking slabs!
Would be great to see PCGS slabs presented this way!