Bement, Clarence Sweet (1843-1923)

by Hadrien Rambach

Clarence Bement had taken over his father’s successful business in machine tools. 370 of his Greek coins were published in 1921, and then his collection of Greek coins was sold in 1909 lots by William S. Kündig and Lucien Naville in auctions VI-VII (1924). Naville also sold Bement’s Roman coins: 1770 lots sold in auction VIII. Bement had also collected European and American coins (notably Colonial and large cents, sold by Henry Chapman in 1916 and 1918), prints and books (many of which are now in the Widener Library at Harvard), and minerals: his collection of over 12,500 specimens was purchased by J.P. Morgan for $100,000 to be given to the Museum of Natural History in New York City.

In 1924 part of Bement’s collection of Greek coins was sold by Lucien Naville in auctions VI-VII.

Bibliography:

  • L. Comparette, A descriptive catalogue of Greek coins selected from the cabinet of Clarence S. Bement, Esq., Philadelphia, New York 1921; J. J. Peters and C. Pearson, “Clarence S. Bement: The Consumate Collector”, in Mineralogical Record, vol. 21 (1990), pp. 47-67; Alan Walker, “Catalogues and their collectors”, in American Journal of Numismatics, vol. 20 (2008), pp. 597-615: pp. 607-608.
  • Hadrien Rambach, “Provenance glossary”, in Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 91: the George W. La Borde collection of Roman aurei – part I, Zurich, 23 May 2016, pp. [67]-[79].
  • Hadrien Rambach, “Provenance glossary”, in Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 99: the George W. La Borde collection of Roman aurei – part II, Zurich, 29 May 2017, pp. 47-63.
  • Hadrien Rambach, “Provenance glossary”, in Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 105: the George W. La Borde collection of Roman aurei – part III, Zurich, 9 May 2018, pp. 82-105.

 

This article was first published in a catalogue of auction house Numismatica Ars Classica.