IGNATZ OTTO STORNAY (1831-1886)

Ignatz Otto Stornay (1831-1886) Austro-Hungarian traveling art dealer, coin dealer and numismatist. He is sometimes referred to as John O. Stornay. He was a robust figure 5'-4" with dark brown hair and hazel eyes according to his passport application.

Before coming to America he worked as an art dealer at Paris. He traveled to America as an art agent for Adolphe Braun et Cie, Paris, France, selling and exhibiting photographs, auto-types, and stereoscopic images in America beginning at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in the summer of 1870.

From there Stornay visited many cities throughout the United States selling art prints and photographs. The Detroit Museum of Arts, for example, houses the Balch Collection of Braun's auto-types, as well as the Princeton University, Art History Department, Marquand Art Library, and The Index of Christian Art at Princeton, which were purchased from Stornay on his trips.

He became a U. S. citizen at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on June 15, 1871. He is listed in the Philadelphia City Directory of 1871 as a salesman living at 1125 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.

Stornay is noted for importing, in addition to art works, coins, from his annual trip to Europe. It is not too surprising to discover that uncirculated or nearly such gem specimens of the early issues from the U. S. Mint were brought by travelers from America to Europe as souvenirs and over time found their way into curiosity shops, coin dealer shops, jewelry stores and exchange bureaus. As Dave Bowers notes in his American Numismatics Before the Civil War 1760-1860 " . . . England became a rich source of Early American coins . . . "

According to the Chapman Brothers Stornay purportedly purchased an Extra Fine-45 1793 NC-1, Crosby 2-C, Breen 3 or Breen 1634, Chain Cent in Europe, the only known specimen at that time, which is now in the ANS collection.

He was a very active coin collector and frequently corresponded with the Chapman Brothers purchasing coins. There are twenty-six pieces of correspondence sent by Stornay to the Chapman Brothers in the Lupia Numismatic Library... Stornay, a perpetual traveler always wrote to the Chapmans on various hotel stationery in the various cities where he exhibited.

He became ill from a minor flesh wound above the ankle and was hospitalized. He died of erysipelas at St. Luke’s Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri on February 22, 1886. He is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery, Saint Louis, Missouri.

The Stornay 1793 NC-1, Crosby 2-C Large Cent was sold by the Chapman Brothers at auction on June 17, 1889 at the Davis & Harvey Auction House, Lot No. 471, realized $130, won by Harold P. Newlin. For the complete provenance see Walter Breen's Encyclopedia of Early United States Cents 1793-1814.

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STORNAY, IGNATZ OTTO (https://sites.google.com/a/numismaticmall.com/
www/numismaticmall-com/stornay-ignatz-otto)

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