OrderBackgroundSpecificationsSectionsArt Sales Catalogues, 1600-1900 |
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Editor: Liesbeth Hugenholtz. Art sales and auction catalogues of previous centuries offer one of the most important resources for the study of the history of collecting, as well as a primary means of establishing a work of art's history and provenance. There are some sale catalogues which have survived intact since the early seventeenth century but the practice of issuing such catalogues really began to come into its own from around the end of the same century. Since then, the number of catalogues issued has grown steadily year by year. Many sales catalogues, especially the older ones from the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, have become extremely rare and of some but one or two copies have survived. Because these sometimes contain marginal notes concerning the lots, prices and purchasers, researchers are often forced to go in search of information in libraries spread all over the world. For the archivists and librarians in whose hands responsibility for the fragile catalogues now rests, the large demand for access or for photocopies is a source of concern. The systematic recording of original catalogue details on microfiche, as has been conducted by IDC Publishers, offers researchers optimal access to the catalogues, while also making a significant contribution to their conservation. Part I, 1600-1825 The first such volume of sales catalogues appeared in 1987, being a collection of more than 5,472 catalogues from the period 1600 1825, assembled from thirteen libraries in the Netherlands. One of the libraries which made its catalogues available was that of the Netherlands I nstitute for Art History (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie), which owns one of the three largest collections of this type in the world. Since 1987, IDC Publishers' list has grown to include the catalogue collections of libraries in Switzerland and Great Britain, and further expansion to this first volume is still going on. As a result of this expansion, part of the collection of catalogues described by Frits Lugt in the first volume of the Répertoire des Catalogues de Ventes Publiques is now available. In addition, Part I contains several hundred catalogues which have come to light since completion of Lugt's Répertoire. Part II, 1826-1860 In 1997, exactly ten years after the inception of this project, the second part became available. This involved making records of the 8,090 catalogues dating from the period 1826 - 1860 to be found in the Netherlands Institute for Art History's collection. This represents yet another important step forwards in making these valuable sources of information accessible to all researchers. Part II corresponds with the second volume of Lugt's Répertoire, published in 1953. However, as with Part I, subsequent material has been included. One of the highlights of this series is the complete documentation pertaining to the famous auction of King Willem II of the Netherlands' collection of paintings, held in 1850. This documentation is rarely to be found in complete form, as here, and the various annotated examples complement each other with regard to marginal notes, etc. Part III 1861-1880 In 2001, IDC Publishers has published the third part of its collection of Art Sales Catalogues, based on (the first section of) the third volume of Frits Lugt’s of Répertoire des Catalogues de Ventes Publiques intéressant l’Art ou la Curiosité. Volume III. La Haye 1964. For this part IDC Publishers has filmed 5,655 catalogues in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Informatie, The Hague. Part IV 1881-1900 In 2003, IDC Publishers has published the fourth part of its collection of Art Sales Catalogues, based on the third volume of Lugt's Répertoire des Catalogues de Ventes Publiques intéressant l’Art ou la Curiosité. Volume III. La Haye 1964. Part four comprises 5,920 microfiche. R.E.O. Ekkart Director, Netherlands Institute for Art History |
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