User:Brucegimelson/sandbox/Bruce Gimelson

Bruce Gimelson (b.July 24, 1942, Dover, Delaware) Parents were Bernard Gimelson and Phyllis Mildred Gimelson.

Early Life

Bruce's father, Bernard Gimelson, was a staff sergeant during WWII serving at Fort Lee, VA, as a band leader. He and his wife Phyllis were school teachers after the War and after a brief stint in Dover, Delaware moved to Phyllis' father's house in Germantown, Philadelphia. Learning to read at an early age, Bruce was dropped off at Sessler's Book Shop in Philadelphia, and was wandering in the biography section when the owner, Mabel Zahn asked him what he was doing. he answered her that he was looking for books on Presidents. She took him into her office, treating him like a customer, and sold him a letter of President James Garfield for twelve dollars which he was allowed to pay off using half his allowance of fifty cents per week. Three weeks later he sold the letter at a flea market to Sam Kleinman, owner of Schuykill Book and Curio Shop, for fifteen dollars. Sam became his lifelong friend and always told everyone how he started Bruce in business.

Later that year (1948) Bruce bought a bronze cow at a church bazaar for fifty cents. He took it with his father to the Trio Brothers Plating Company in South Philadelphia and they told him not to have it polished to keep the patina. One of the Trio brothers bought the bronze for ten dollars. So within one year Bruce became a dealer in autographs and antiques.

Initial Professional Life

While attending Houston elementary school Bruce was active in buying and selling artifacts. He later went on to Central High School and the University of Pennsylvania both in Philadelphia.At Penn he spent most of his time doing research in the Van Pelt Library but became increasingly active in the collecting world. Using his Sophomore tuition money to buy thirteen Abraham Lincoln documents he was unable to continue with his education without some help. He suggested to his father that he would "drop out" of Penn for a semester but Bernard would have nothing to do with that. Instead he decided to sell a rare coin from his collection (he had quit teaching to become a coin dealer in 1959). Bruce told him to wait a bit to see if he could sell the Lincoln documents. While walking down Pine Street, noted for being one of the world's antique centers, he noticed a wheel barrel full of old documents with a price of twelve dollars on it. Upon examining the pile of papers, he found a notebook in the hand of Jasper Yeates at "The College of Philadelphia" in 1760. Bruce immediately recognized the name- it was the College founded by Benjamin Franklin that later became his alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania. The lecture turned out to be given by William Smith, the first provost of the University; up to this point it was not known what course Smith had taught.Excitedly Bruce took the notebook to the rare book library at Van Pelt and solid for his tuition. But alas, his father had already sold his favorite coin for fifteen hundred dollars, a 1794 large cent, Sheldon 30, in practically perfect condition. Bruce called the new owner and asked to buy it back but he would not sell it to him. So Bruce promised his father he would get the coin back. Bernard died in 1989 but in 2003 Bruce noticed the coin coming up at an auction in Illinois and made good on his promise, buying the seat coin for a lot more than his it had first realized, $48,000!

Later Professional Life

After graduating from Penn Bruce went full force into dealing in Americana of all fields, issuing catalogs and dealing face to face with clients. His customers included Malcolm and Steve Forbes, Walter Chrysler,Jr, John Fleming, Jack Lemmon, Charles Sigety, Bill Steiner, Joe Fields, Joel and Linda Scharf, and many others. He has handled some incredible items including a rare Patek Phillippe chronograph, a first printing of the United States Constitution (which recently sold for Forty three Million dollars), four sets of letters and documents of the Signers of the Declaration, over a hundred letters and documents of George Washington and the same for Abraham Lincoln, a twenty-two and a half page 1794 speech signed and annotated by Washington to Congress delineating the law and order clause of the Constitution, eight portraits of Washington by Gilbert Stuart, one of few miniature paintings of Washington by Charles Willson Peale, autographs, books and photographs signed by all the Presidents (the photos starting with John Quincy Adams), a gold box by Faberge given by Czar Nicholas II to his cousin with 165 diamonds on the top forming the initials "N II",plus many others. He was also instrumental in acquiring and placing the finest known piece of American sculpture, Jean Antoine Houdon's masterpiece bust of Thomas Jefferson which now resides at Monticello.