Q.David Bowers
To be a proper museum catalogue it should be on about the lines of our Mills and Bushnell catalogues, and to be thoroughly scientific it should have the weights and sizes of the coins before the establishment of the Mint accurately stated which would require much additional time.
It is difficult for us to estimate the exact amount of our time it would take. Now we will show you what time it takes to catalogue such a collection. We estimate your American collection is about equal to the Mills Collection work which required six months solid time for one member of our firm.
He took the collection to his cottage in the Adirondacks the latter part of July and began to work with the stenographer the first of August. He worked for one and one half months and then began about the first of October, and during October, November, and December he gave it about half his time, and that is about all the time he could give it with some attention every day to general business. Then in January, February, and March he gave it all his time. It would be necessary almost to have the collection in our possession in sections. We would hold ourselves responsible for it while in our hands from all risks of loss. Mr. Mills, for instance, gave us his full permission to take the collection to our cottage at Lake Placid. The advantage of doing this is that the one who is working on it is able to give it his undivided attention. If we could take a portion of it with one of us next summer, we could put through the work more rapidly. Your ancient and foreign coins of course will take more time in proportion than the American . . .
Discussion continued on the same subject in their next letter dated the 20th:
After giving the matter further consideration we find it would be impracticable for us to undertake to do the work entirely at Princeton as we estimate the collection will require at least six months work.
We see that we cannot be away from our office and our home for such a period of time or even one half that time. We would first come to Princeton and arrange the entire collection in order roughly, which would require at least a week and we would then remove sections for cataloguing and return them as each section was completed before taking another section. We would hold ourselves responsible for all loss either by fire or theft.
If you desire to make any inquiries as to our character, we would refer you to any party for whom we have sold a collection. Mr. Mills will be happy to answer any inquiries you may desire to make. We give you the following references who know us personally and socially as well as professionally.
John Story Jenks, director of the Western National Bank and Savings Fund, Seventh and Walnut Streets, Philadelphia, and director in many other financial institutions. He has one of the largest general collections in America and a man who is worth personally more than a million dollars. George H. Earle, Jr., president of the Finance Company of Pennsylvania, where we keep our accounts, also president of the Trademen's and Market Street National Banks, director of the Union Traction Company, and one of the most prominent financiers in Philadelphia and has a very fine collection of high grade coins.
Mr. John C. Garrett, Rosemont, Pennsylvania, former vice president of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, who has known us from infancy.
It is very tedious work to catalogue a collection as it must be done with such absolute accuracy. The careful work requited in the Colonial series consumes an immense amount of time.
All the large collections have each occupied for us six months. The Bushnell collection took six months. The Warner collection took over six months with both of us working at it. The Mills Collection required six months entire time 'Of one.
As to naming the exact fee for out services, we find we do not know sufficiently well what is in the collection and would wish to inspect it and would be glad to meet you there any time you may see fit. Any time next week and any time thereafter except April 3 through April 6 and the week of April 17 to April 22. During the latter week we will hold the Morris sale.
Robert Garrett sent this immediate reply dated the 22nd:
The reason I said I did not feel willing to let our collection leave Princeton temporarily was not because of any lack of confidence in you, but simply because I am well aware that accidents do happen even when circumstances are extraordinarily favorable. If I had not had perfect confidence in you, I would not have discussed with you at all the question of cataloguing our collection of coins.
As I have indicated before, I cannot say definitely that I should like you to go ahead with the work until I can gain some idea of the total cost that I shall have to meet. Your suggestion that you come here to inspect the collection is a good one, and I shall be glad to see you here any day between now and the first of April, for I expect to be here until the week after next.
On Thursday, March 30, 1905, the Chapman brothers met with Robert Garrett at Princeton as they had proposed. The results of this meeting were summed up in a subsequent letter from the Chapmans:
As we agreed in conversation on Thursday last at Princeton, we will arrange, catalogue, and revise the proofs of the catalogue of the collection which you exhibited to us, for the sum of $5,000, to be paid on completion of the work, with proportionate partial payments as the work progresses, we to complete the work within two years. We will leave what portion of the work shall be proceeded with and the proportionate partial payments to be mutually agreed upon as the work progresses.
A formal agreement was proposed by the Chapman Brothers "for our mutual benefit ... in case any of the various vicissitudes or accidents of life might occur."
Accordingly, a legal document was submitted by them on April 10th for Robert Garrett's approval. Following a further chain of correspondence various compromises were reached. The agreement was approved on July 3rd, with some reservations on both sides.
While Garrett recommended additional clauses "in order to be superabundantly cautious," the main point of contention continued to be the Chapmans' determination to have the coins at their residence in Philadelphia to be studied.
Robert Garrett finally conceded to having selected sections removed from Princeton to Philadelphia only with his written consent in each instance. However, the problem of security plagued them throughout the project.
Work on the first section of the catalogue was completed by November 14, 1905, and it was forwarded to Robert Garrett. A bill for $714.28, for professional services and a letter accompanied their manuscript:
We send you herewith the catalogue, typewritten, of the first section of your collection of coins, comprising the coins of the British colonies in North America prior to the Revolution, coins of the United States, and of the states, prior to the establishment of the mint in 1792. We have carried out the work on a more extended scale than our best auction sale catalogues, and have inserted the size and weight of all specimens, and references to the work of Crosby on these series. [The Early Coins of America, by Sylvester S. Crosby, published in 1875, was then and remains to this day the standard reference on early colonial and state coinage.] It has entailed a tremendous amount of work, even with all our practice, and far more than seems to appear on the surface of these finished sheets.