National Art Library auction house sale catalogues
The National Art Library has an extensive collection of sales catalogues from the United Kingdom, Europe and, to a lesser extent, the United States. The Library aims to collect catalogues from the world's major auction houses and dealers. It also acquires catalogues from other sources that describe the contents of outstanding sales or discrete collections of interest for the history of art, craft and design or which include material of interest to Victoria and Albert Museum collections. The strength of the National Art Library's sales catalogues collection lies in its coverage of the major pre-20th century sales throughout Europe, rather than in runs from particular houses. Subjects covered by the catalogues are in line with the Library's general collecting policy.
Major British auction house runs in the National Art Library
The Library holds the following sales catalogues, among others, including priced and unpriced runs from Christie's and Sotheby's. The inclusive dates given below indicate the start and end date of the Library's holdings. They should not be taken to imply that our holdings between such dates are comprehensive.
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Bonham's, London,1972–
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Christie's, London, 1769–
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Christie's [priced], 1867–1965
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Foster's [priced], 1815–1937
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Knight, Frank & Rutley [priced], 1896–1969 (on permanent loan to the National Art Library from the company)
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Phillip's, London, 1976–
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Sotheby's, London, 1801–
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Sotheby's [priced], 1926–65
In addition, the National Art Library holds microform copies of some catalogues, including:
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Sotheby & Co. catalogues of sales [1734–1900] [microfilm copies of Sotheby's sales catalogues, from the British Museum collection.] Printed guide at pressmark: REF 707.5 SOT
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Art sales catalogues, [1600–1900] [microfilm copies of sales catalogues listed in: Lugt, Frits, 'Répertoire des catalogues de ventes publiques intéressant d'art ou la curiosité ... ', The Hague: Nijhoff, 1938-1987. 4 vols. (Vol 4 published Paris: Fondation Custodia, 1987).] Printed guide at pressmark: REF 707.5 LUG
Priced catalogues
Price lists have routinely been inserted into catalogues since at least the early 1960s.The Library also has collections of historical priced catalogues for Christie, Manson & Woods, Foster, Knight, Frank & Rutley and Sotheby's. These were annotated with hammer prices by the auction houses at the time of the sales. They do not yet appear in the Online Catalogue but those which document sales up to 1925 are listed in Lugt.
Finding sales catalogues in the NAL
With the recent completion of the National Art Library Heritage Project, entries for the older catalogues (excluding the priced catalogues described above), as well as those for current acquisitions, are listed in the Online Catalogue. Select the 'Sales Catalogues' menu option. You can search by: sale date, location, auction house, or words from the title. The Advanced Search option also allows searching by owner name.
Requesting sales catalogues in the NAL
For information on requesting sales catalogues see Requesting Material in the National Art Library. To order a priced catalogue, fill in a requisition form with the name of the auction house, title of sale and exact date of sale. In the pressmark box write (for example) 'Christies' Priced'. Readers should note that a substantial proportion of the catalogues in the discrete priced Sotheby and Christies' sequences will be duplicated in our main runs for these auction houses.
Further information
See Finding Information on Art Auction Sales, Sales Catalogues and Price Guides for a list of sources of auction and sale information, and Art Auction and Antique Dealers Links for links to auction houses and antiques and collecting associations.
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