BOOK REVIEW: WHO'S WHO AMONG AMERICAN MEDALLISTS

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V19 2016 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 19, Number 2, January 10, 2016, Article 7

David Alexander wrote a review of Dick Johnson's new book on American medallists in the January 5, 2016 issue of Coin World. Here's an excerpt. -Editor

I have collected medals since 1953 and have written extensively in the field. In the interest of full disclosure, I worked for Dick Johnson and his partner Chris E. Jensen as director of publications and auction cataloger for their partnership of Johnson & Jensen, leaving in 1981.

Johnson has labored long in the field and introduced many brilliant ideas for which he has seldom received the credit deserved. He was the first editor of the weekly newspaper Coin World. His formulation of methods for coherent and replicable cataloging of medals transformed the auctioning of these collectibles...

Right or wrong, Johnson seldom shrank from controversy. Behind the title page appears a 10-line statement, “Spelling of the word “medallists.” He begins by stating quite correctly “In America the word is spelled with one L. In England the word has two Ls.” He then asserts that he is using the “two L” form throughout, “this continues a tradition established in 1907 when the Medallic Art Company chose this spelling, continued in 1930 with the creation of the Society of Medallists, both with two L.”

Two things: the adjective “medallic” with one L would be improper anywhere in the English-speaking world. The bold assertion that “medallists” with two L’s “continued in 1930 with the creation of the Society of Medallists” is startlingly wrong, as can be seen in my book American Art Medals, 1909-1995, Circle of Friends of the Medallion and Society of Medalists, American Numismatic Society, 2012.

Not all works of all artists can be included in any book, however ambitious, and no book is free of typos and slips of the pen. Most puzzling is the failure to record Geri Jimenez Gould’s creation of the last medal of the Society of Medalists, following Afghan sculptor Amanullah Haiderzad’s uniface, rectangular SOM medal, Kabul Bazaar.

The bibliography at the end of the volume is hard to follow, with titles listed chronologically in order of publication. New, revised or updated editions are generally ignored, such as the update of the great Cornelius C. Vermeule’s Numismatic Art in America, vastly enlarged and published by Whitman in 2007.

Successful use of this book will call for a degree of memorization to enable readers to relocate listings sought since there is no comprehensive alphabetization that covers all contents. Nonetheless, Who’s Who among American Artists should be acquired by any serious medal collector, student or medallic library. Priced at $65 postpaid, the book may be ordered from Signature Art Medals, P.O. Box 920, Groton, MA 01450.

To read the complete article, see:
Reviewing Johnson's U.S. medal designers book (www.coinworld.com/news/us-coins/2016/01/david-alexander-reviews-dick-johnson-medallic-artists-book-guest-commentary.html#)