| In the course of collecting Napoleonic era coins and medals I was offered a copy of "Laskey" to purchase at one of the shows. As I discovered, the small volume by Captain J.C. Laskey, printed in 1818, is one of the classic works needed by any serious (or semi-serious) collector of the medals of the First Empire. The other two that are actually available are the Prince d`Essling`s catalog and Bramsen`s seminal work. |
| Collecting like other habits often needs a focal point to assist one in establishing direction. So it was for me when I acquired this book. The 141 medals detailed in A Description of the Series of Medals struck at the National Medal Mint at the Order of Napoleon Bonaparte, Commemorating the Most Remarkable Battles and Events During his Dynasty formed an attainable goal to collect toward. I`ve managed to collect 86 and still acquiring, limited only by occasionally using my collecting budget for getting digital cameras, scanners and etc. |
| I intend to type in the entire text of Laskey`s book for each medal I put on the net. The layout I`ve designed is intended to look good on the net, not to reproduce what the book looks like. Laskey counted on the written word to convey what the medals looked like, this was before photography and I suspect the good Captain couldn`t afford to have engravings done. I also suspect that the Captain paid for his typesetting by the sentence. Some of the longest sentences in the English language are contained within this book, and I`ve been exposed to some very long sentences! |
| I`ve scanned in the portrait and title page from the book that you can take a look at. |