Collector Profile: The Extraordinary Collection and Life of Loye Lauder
Rittenhouse
Posts: 672 ✭✭✭✭
I published the following article in this week's E-Sylum. Posted here for those who don't subscribe.
The Extraordinary Collection and Life of Loye Lauder
Front and Back Cover of the Lauder Catalog
A few months ago, I had the good fortune to purchase the silver 103-EE Betts Fantasy "Fugio Pattern," ex Loye Lauder, in the November 2025 Stacks Bowers Showcase Auction. While I'm sure I've seen Mrs. Lauder's name before as there are numerous early US pieces with her provenance, the name did not register at the time. The brief biographical sketch at the beginning of the catalog gives a solid appreciation of Loye's numismatic focus and what she had accomplished in such a short time:
Loye L. Lauder was an enthusiastic and truly "amateur" collector in the classic sense of one who pursues an interest out of love for the subject matter.
In only eight years she nearly accomplished her goal of obtaining an example of every Colonial and early U.S. copper coin listed in the Red Book. Had she not died at the age of 53 she would surely have gone on to complete the collection. From the notes she left it is evident that she was pursuing a number of specific pieces, a strawberry leaf cent, for example, and was by then intent upon upgrading varieties already obtained.
Unlike the over-the-top hyperbole in many auction catalogs, a review of her coins shows that Loye had a great eye and appreciation for both quality and rarity. Her sale started off with five very rare Sommer Islands "Hogge Money," the second of which is just one of three known. The seventh coin in the auction was the NE sixpence, Noe-2, Red Book plate coin.
In the federal series, she had every Red Book rarity, often in quite high grades. Her collection ended with numerous high-grade proof and pattern Indian Head cents, along with a Lincoln cent die trial, 1909-S VDB, 14-D, and a couple Matte Proofs. And her catalog photograph showed a stunningly elegant woman. I simply had to know more about her.
Left, Loye "Betty" Lark, age 23, courtesy Julia Casey. Right, Mrs. Lauder's auction catalog photo
Loye "Betty" Lark was the daughter of the prominent New York City lawyer, Charles T. Lark. She was born in 1911, had two older brothers, and lived in Hackensack, NJ. She attended upper-class boarding schools and graduated from Columbia University. She was the Chairman of Volunteer Service for the American Red Cross of Bergen County and served with the Red Cross through World War II. She is not related to the Lauders of cosmetics fame as widely misreported.
Loye was a born collector. In her early 20s it was reported that she had dozens upon dozens of bone china and glass dogs. A comment on her collecting from the Feb. 23, 1937 issue of the Bergen County Record reveals a true collector's soul, "She advances no good reason for collecting those toy dogs which overflow her bedroom, except that it amuses her to do it and harms no one."
In 1941, she married her first husband, Allison Laytham, then Vice President and heir to the Laytham Iron and Steel Works in Patterson, NJ. When Allison died in 1956, Loye became president of Laytham Steel and remained so until her passing in 1963, even though she had remarried outside of the Laytham family. She must have been a truly extraordinary businesswoman to not only succeed her husband in the 1950s, but to remain in control of a male-dominated industry.
In 1957, Loye married George Lauder III, a prominent yacht builder and racer. George was the grandson of George Lauder, a billionaire Scottish iron and steel engineer, who was a friend and partner of Andrew Carnegie. Newspapers of the time report that the Lauders often wintered in Miami, sailing their yacht and deep-sea fishing in the Gulf Stream.
Once again, there is no family connection between the Scottish Lauders and the family of cosmetics renown. The Lauder fortune came from Carnegie Steel.
Loye never had any children, but she was stepmother to George's daughters from a previous marriage. And in an interesting turn of fate, Loye was related by marriage to Gene Tunney, the heavyweight boxing champion from 1926 to 1928. Tunney had secretly married George's sister, Polly Lauder, in 1928. While the newspapers billed it as the love story of the decade, the family (excepting George and Loye) apparently had a fit. Nonetheless, Polly and Gene remained married until their deaths.
While Loye had an amazing life, she sadly passed away from a heart attack on Sept. 28, 1964, at just 53 years of age. Since her collection was not auctioned until nearly 20 years after her passing, we can only presume that George kept her collection out of memory for her until just three years before his own passing. Perhaps it took him that long to let go or perhaps he knew his health was declining and he wanted to see her coins get new homes before he died.
Loye's coins brought serious money for the time and today her scarce and rare pieces sell for tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. She had a great eye and left us way too soon.
Author's notes: Many thanks to Julia Casey for finding several interesting tidbits about Loye. Julia and I had a great time emailing back-and-forth with our finds. The full Lauder catalog is available on NNP at: https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=513061&AuctionId=529329. If you'd like to subscribe to the E-Sylum or just check it out, here's a link to the current issue: https://www.coinbooks.org/v29/esylum_v29n03.html#article20
Comments
This is a fascinating snapshot into an extraordinary life. It's really too bad she didn't live to a much older age. If she had, doubtless her name would be better known in numismatic circles. Thanks so much for posting this.
Very interesting portrait into her life. Thanks for taking the time to share here!
“We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”
Todd - BHNC #242
Thanks for sharing this with the forum.
WS
Take a look at her auction catalog. It's mind-blowing.
Excellent post, Rittenhouse. Although time separated them, Loye shares a Bergen County connection with the late David Ganz, who was a six-time Bergen County Freeholder.
Manager of Numismatic Research and Programs | PCGS
Correct.
George Lauder III's paternal line goes to George Lauder born in Scotland, 1816.
Leonard Lauder (the modern art collector) was born Leonard Alan Lauter in 1933. His family still spelled their surname Lauter in the 1950 census; they changed it to Lauder at some later time. The Estée Lauder company was founded in 1946. Their paternal line goes to William Lauter born in Austria, 1871.
Very enjoyable read. Information I was unaware of.
"She advances no good reason for collecting those toy dogs which overflow her bedroom, except that it amuses her to do it and harms no one."
I'll remember that line the next time someone asks me why I collect.
That's the best description and reasoning for collecting I have ever read.
Why i love thumbing thru the catalogs like this 👍
A very interesting life story.
I'm surprised that I had not heard about her before.
Recalled this from a few years ago.
There were some interesting comments about the 1983 Lauder auction and its format in the Alan V. Weinberg Collection, Part I auction by Heritage Jan 10, 2019 Lot 4308.
1792 P1C Silver Center Cent, Judd-1, Pollock-1, Low R.7, SP58+ Brown PCGS Secure. CAC at $750,000
https://coins.ha.com/itm/large-cents/1792-p1c-silver-center-cent-judd-1-pollock-1-low-r7-sp58-brown-pcgs-secure-cac-pcgs-11001-/a/1291-4308.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515
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"...Lauder's collection was preserved intact by her estate for almost two decades after her death. Curiously, the collection was finally consigned to William Doyle Galleries, a firm that dealt mainly in antiques and had little experience with numismatic auctions. The timing of the sale was not ideal, as it took place three days after Stack's sold the remarkable Colonial collection of John Roper. Alan Weinberg had a strong interest in coins offered in both auctions. Unfortunately, he was unable to stay in New York long enough to attend both auctions himself, so he arranged for prominent dealer William Anton to represent him at the Lauder sale. Doyle Galleries conducted the sale in a manner more suited to an antiques auction than a numismatic event. In Alan's words, "Unbelievably, the format was a 'Dutch auction' - where the coin up for sale is offered at a high start price and, if no takers, keeps dropping until someone raises their arm." The 1792 Silver Center cent in lot 233 was initially offered at $70,000, the highest price Weinberg had authorized Anton to bid. Wisely, Anton refrained from bidding at that level and let the coin drop incrementally until it reached a $40,000 asking price. He judiciously placed his bid at that point, winning the lot, while other dealers looked on in astonishment. A week later, when the shock wore off, one of the dealers at the sale contacted Weinberg and offered him a $10,000 profit for the coin he won in this unorthodox fashion. Of course, he refused the offer. The coin has been a cornerstone of his remarkable collection for the intervening 35 years.
Alan Weinberg's Commentary: One of the best acquisitions I've made in over 58 years of collecting. This coin was auctioned by Doyle Galleries, a New York City antique auction house, out of the Loye Lauder Collection. The sale took place less than a week after Stack's classic John Roper auction, which I attended in December of 1983. The Roper sale included another Judd-1 with a severe quarter-inch reverse planchet lamination missing, which sold for $18,000 to Tony Terranova. I could not stay in New York another five days, so I had my good friend Bill Anton represent me at the Doyle auction. Bill did not need a Judd-1, since he already owned the "Morris" coin. Little did Bill realize that his Morris coin had a questionable silver plug.
Doyle's Lauder auction was a very peculiar "Dutch Auction" where they started the coin at $70,000 and worked their way down, with no one bidding and everyone sitting on their hands, to $40,000 before Bill raised his hand. Bam! The lot was immediately hammered closed, at half the catalog estimate. Jaws dropped throughout the auction room. A week later, I received a call from a prominent dealer who attended the auction offering me a $10,000 profit for the coin. I declined. I consider this coin the third-finest known, after the Garrett and Norweb examples..."
"To Be Esteemed Be Useful" - 1792 Birch Cent --- "I personally think we developed language because of our deep need to complain." - Lily Tomlin
I was at the auction and bought plenty, especially the pattern cents. It was a lot of fun and there were some really good deals, but it was not a Dutch auction. Yes, sometimes the auctioneer would start too high and then lower the starting bid. But no, the lot wasn’t automatically awarded to the first bid, as would happen in a true Dutch auction. Bidding would continue until nobody wanted to pay more.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
Wish I had been there, but I was just getting back into collecting having stopped in high school (cars and girls, the latter being VERY expensive) through college and my early career. But even if I had been, I'd have done little more than drool since I didn't quite have the knowledge or pocket at the time.
Those girls must really have been something special.
Oh yes, they were. But remember I'm an old fart, so this was back in the 60s and 70s when a dollar was worth something and we didn't make all that much money working a bit after school or weekends. Spending 10 or 20 bucks taking a girl out was quite a drain.
Very interesting article and history. Thank you for sharing!
Collector of Capped Bust Halves, SLQ's, Commems, and random cool stuff! @davidv_numismatics on Instagram