A rich source for art historians
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 for some of these only 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.
Filming
The systematic filming of original catalogues offers researchers optimal access to the catalogues, while also making a significant contribution to their conservation.
Since 1987, IDC Publishers (an imprint of BRILL since 2006) has been filming art sales catalogues in many different libraries and published them on microfiche. Of certain catalogues more than one copy has been filmed due to different annotations or translated editions. In the microfiche collection the catalogues have been subdivided into parts related to periods.
Part I, 1600-1825
Part II, 1826-1860
Part III, 1861-1880
Part IV, 1881-1900
It is IDC Publisher's intention that the Art Sales Catalogues collection will eventually comprise all catalogues from the period between 1600 and 1900. We will continue to add catalogues to our holdings for all 4 parts by filming in various libraries.
Since 2004 IDC has made these catalogues also available in an online publication.
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