Descendants of Marshal Massena, Prince d`Essling, had acquired an extremely large collection of medals, coins, orders, tokens and jetons, primarily related to the period covered by the French First Empire. While most of the collection was naturally of French origin, a significant portion came from lands both opposed and allied with Napoleon the First.
In 1927 the collection was auctioned off in Paris. It was so large that the auction took place over a four day period with, ironically, one of the days being the 112th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo!
The catalog of the collection forms an important part of any collector`s reference library. I obtained my photocopy version from a coin dealer whose name I do not recall at the moment. As I do recall, the price was very reasonable, certainly not much more than the cost of the copies. The advantage of having both a photocopy and an original is that I can write in the photocopy details on each medal as I purchase it.
In January, 1997 I acquired an original copy of the catalog. It was printed and bound something like the National Geographics of the 1920s and the catalog cover itself is falling off.
The catalog is completely in French. Unlike Laskey I`m not actively trying to collect this book. The truth is, this catalog is so complete it is almost impossible to collect something not listed. When I do get something unlisted I check again. My French, and the sometimes strange organization of the catalog can fool you!