Http://www.potterauctions.com/pdf/Catalo......_WEB.pdf

You'll want to look closely, especially at those lots that contain multiple books.
The playing card collection and the various lithographs and prints are unrivaled in terms of completeness.

The Faro, card trimmer, and hold-out section will probably have a few drooling (there's even a Dr. X N-Stripper machine up, talk about topical!).
Fairly complete vintage dice gaffing selection too, including a dice-switching croupiers stick (something I've not had the fortune to see to date).

I could be wrong (I often am), but I strongly suspect quite a bit of the collection was pre-sold to Wohl's good friends and associates.
There doesn't seem to be the quantity of hardware being offered that one was led to believe Wohl was in possession of.

Regardless, this is the nicest offering since Forte's collection came up.

I think there is a little mistake in the description of the item N°751. To me, it's not a croupier dice stick, it's a rake used by croupier to deal the roulette "a la Francaise". It's still used today by croupiers in few places in France and in Monte Carlo. In France the game tend to die slowly... You can see how it was used in the 4 first minutes of a short clip from the movie "La baie des anges".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ3_RtCAl5k

Notice the ambiance in the goods olds days of french casinos, before slots machines came in...

I agree. Item 751 is not a dice stick but used in Roulette to push and drag chips or betting plaques.

Interestingly, here is a variation on this theme. A dealer at Green Valley Station in Henderson/Las Vegas, Nevada uses a Chinese Back Scratcher to deal poker. She uses the backscratcher to pull in the bets toward the center of the table so she does not have to stretch too far. Quite ingenious and somewhat humorous.

Good catch.
The catalog folks obviously weren't using Mr. Wohl's original notes, or if they were, they read them wrong.

It's not an error Ron Wohl would have made.

Yep.

I don't think that is the case at all. I believe that what's happened is simply this: Ron has so much stuff that it couldn't all go into a single auction. Especially not into an auction that was already guaranteeing another seller some space. If you were going to hold out the good stuff from Ron's collection you missed by a long shot. There probably aren't 3 other Diana layouts in the world that look that good. Poker Rubaiyat exists in a handful of known copies at best and some of that hardware you'll never see again.

Doesn't look cherry-picked to me.

Plus it pre-supposes Ron Wohl had friends.

Jason England

You really think that *nobody* had a the chance to select a few items before going to auctions ?

That's not what I'm saying at all.

Ron knew he was dying (of cancer), so it's entirely possible that he made some deals with people towards the end. I'm just saying that it doesn't appear to me to have been picked clean by anyone, especially considering the items that are still in the auction.

Jason

This first catalog is certainly impressive. And thinking there will be others auctions following, it gives and idea about the importance or Wohl among collectors.

But I've been told it was much more impressive than what is shown here and I have good ears as well . That's why I used smileys.

There are definitely some amazing items in the auction, but there also seems to be some "holes" in what's being offered.

Thus, my missive that Wohl either parted with some hardware prior to the auction ... or there are items being held back for a second auction.

Unless I read the entire thing poorly (which is possible), Forte's collection was much more impressive than Wohl's collection based on what was available at the Forte auction, and what is available at the Wohl auction.
However, the record implies that (at the least) Wohl's collection should at least equal Forte's, if not exceed it.
Reading the current Wohl auction catalog, it does neither.

Perhaps some of Wohl's collection is still a bit too contemporary to offer publicly, treading too close to items which may still be viewed as questionable from a legal standpoint? (anything with a current casino logo on it, etc).

Not being a contrarian Jason, just wondering why some areas apparently aren't covered ... when Wohl was a completest in terms of his collection.

Artie,

Steve's collection was even better than what was presented at auction. Steve was/is generous to a fault. A lot of his stuff never made it to VCA because he gifted items to friends and or made some deals that were truly wonderful. I know - I was the recipient of several wonderful treasures from him. Some (many) were gifts and a few I just got a fantastic deal on.

I've no doubt Ron Wohl could've done the same with some items. I can't tell from your (and Arnold's) posts if you're talking about Ron himself placing certain items with friends or someone coming along after he died and cherry-picking it before taking the rest to auction.

The former is ok - the latter isn't cool at all if it went against Ron's wishes.

Part 1 of the Wohl auction is today (Saturday), and there are currently ZERO bids on one of the rarest books on dice work around.

It's stuffed in behind a bunch of other books in the lot, so clean your computer screen