Art History Bibliography and Library Methods

Bibliographies of Art Auction Catalogs

Art 600

1. Lugt, F. Répertoire des catalogues de ventes publiques (1938-87) 4 v.

N8650.L8 Art reference

V.1 - 1600-1825; v.2 - 1826-1860; v.3 - 1861-1900; v.4 - 1901-1925.

Union catalog of art auction catalogs, providing exhaustive chronological coverage of them from the earliest examples, published around 1600, to 1860 and selective coverage thereafter to1925. Contains individual entries for almost 90,000 catalogs. Each entry supplies Lugt's number for the auction, date of the auction, its location, name of the collector whose possessions were sold, kinds and numbers of lots auctioned, name of the auctioneer or gallery, description of the catalog, and libraries that hold copies of the catalog, including information about annotations or sketches in individual copies. Each volume concludes with an alphabetical index of collectors who appear in the entries.

2. Lancour, H. American art auction catalogues, 1785-1942 (1944)

N8650.L28 Art reference

Chronological coverage of U.S. art auction catalogs, supplying for them much the same kind of information that Lugt gives, including locations of copies in U.S. libraries and information about whether or not they are annotated. Some overlapping with Lugt, since the latter also covers U.S. art auction catalogs. Includes alphabetical index of all collectors mentioned in the entries and alphabetical list of U.S. art auction houses with dates of operation.

3. Bibliothèque Forney. Catalogue des catalogues de ventes d'art (1972) 2 v.

Z5939.P224 Art reference

In-house index to the Forney's own collection of art auction catalogs—mostly French and from the 20th c. Provides access by collector, date of auction, and place of auction. No descriptions of catalogs or information about whether or not they have annotations.

4. Harvard University. Fogg Art Museum. Catalogue of the Harvard University Fine Arts Library (1971) 15 v. 1st supp. (1976) 3 v.

Z5939.H35 Art reference

V.15 of the main set and the last 50 pp. of the supplement contain entries for the Fogg's auction catalog collection arranged alphabetically by auction house and then chronologically. Access by collector is provided in the body of the main set and the supplement.

5. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Library. Catalog (1980) 48 v. Supps. 1-3 (1982-87)

Z881.N6623 1980 Art reference

Last three volumes of main set provide access to auction catalogs in the Met's library by collector, medium (if all the lots sold at an auction were of the same medium), and auction house or gallery (in the case of mixed or anonymous collections).

6. Répertoire d'art et d'archéologie (1910- )

Z5937.R4 Art reference (center table)

Published a regular section from 1911 through 1930 covering auction catalogs. Arranged by country, city, and then chronologically. No indexing provided, so a lot of scanning necessary to find individual items.

7. SCIPIO, 1980- (WWW database)

Provides indexing to over 100,000 art auction catalogs by seller/collector, date of sale, and other access points, from records cooperatively contributed by several museum libraries, including the Metropolitan, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and Getty. Supplies locations of copies for interlibrary loan/photocopy purposes. See Alex for assistance.

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