Many great rarities in divergent fields passed through our hands. In 1965 we bought a legendary silver center cent that was discovered in the wall of a renovated building. In that same period we bought and sold the Dunninger Collection of Houdini memorabilia that included 1900 locks and keys, and most of the magic equipment the great escape artist owned at his death. This eventually was incorporated into the Houdini Magic Hall of Fame in Niagara Falls, Canada. Several years later John Fleming, the successor to Dr.A.S.W. Rosenbach, sold me the Abbe Vignali Collection of Napoleonic Relics which contained the original death mask of the Emperor by his personal physician on St.Helena, Dr. Antommarchi, a copy of Napoleon’s will in the hand of his priest, various monogrammed altar cloths and clothing, and even a pair of his pants!

George Washington has always been a favorite subject and I have owned over forty documented relics from his personal effects including china and glass, pewter, silver, jewelry, art, and furniture. In the last thirty years I have bought and sold several hundred letters and documents of our first President; the most significant of these was the 22 page Whiskey Rebellion speech, also acquired from Fleming, in which The Father of His Country defined the Law and Order clause of the Constitution justifying the action of American troops against settlers in western Pennsylvania who rebelled against the whiskey tax. I have also handled many life portraits of George Washington including multiples by Gilbert Stuart, Edward Savage, Joseph Wright, Charles Willson Peale, and others.

I made two major purchases from the Union League Club of Philadelphia, once in 1975, and again in 1981 in which I acquired dozens of rare marble and plaster statues, and priceless oil paintings including one of Tissot’s masterpieces. My personal favorite was the Rembrandt Peale inscribed teaching copy of Gilbert Stuart’s Athenaeum portrait of George Washington.

In the next decade I bought and sold what was arguably the finest known letter of John Hancock. Written on July 6, 1776 to the town clerk of Boston, the President of Congress and the first to sign the Declaration sent a packet of printed copies of the great document to be disseminated throughout Massachusetts Bay. His memorable line in that letter was, “We are finally free from the bonds of slavery!” In the early nineties I was instrumental in the acquisition of the finest example of American sculpture, the original Jean Antoine Houdon bust of Thomas Jefferson, which has now been donated to Monticello.

Over the years my interests have broadened dramatically, which you will see as you travel through our copiously illustrated and descriptive web pages. This has been made easier and more pleasant by the help and support of my best friend and life partner, Sandra Thayer. These sections contain fine antiques, autographs, china/porcelain, drawings, historic objects, paintings, postal history, prints, and silver- all of which are offered for sale. We are most interested in purchasing major stamp and coin collections and will also trade fine art objects for important individual items or collections in those fields. We intend to share some portions of our own private holdings here in the future. I hope you enjoy your tour of our site and find something of interest. If you are not successful on your first attempt be sure to visit us again as more will be added on a regular basis.