Artfact

Contains over 5 million unedited public auction sales results and over 200,000 images compiled from hundreds of participating auction houses worldwide.

AskART.com

Information about 27,000 American artists.

artprice.com

Fee-based service. 4 million auction results collected from 1700 to the present, covering 271,053 artists.

American art analog. 3 vols. 1986.
A+A N6506 +A405 1986 (LC)

Brief biographies of 850 American artists born between 1688-1930, with information on sales from 1975-85. Includes essays on various genres (folk art, marine painting, still-life, etc.).

Art sales index. 1968-
British Art Center Reference N8670 A66 (LC)

Originally devoted to paintings, now includes drawings, sculpture etc. Covers 400 international auction houses in 20 countries. Includes chronological list of sales. Computer-based, with various services available.

Gordon's print price annual
A+A Reference CD-ROM (behind circulation desk), VIM 28

Standard source for print sales. Covers nearly 20 European and American houses. Includes edition numbers, condition of print, signature data. Extensive bibliographical apparatus.

Mayer's international auction records. 1967-
A+A Reference N8640 I5 (LC) (latest ed.)

Annual. Engravings, drawings, watercolors, paintings, sculpture. Most titles translated into English. Chronological list of sales. Standard index.

World collectors annuary. 1946-
A+A Reference ND47 W67 (LC) (latest ed.)

Paintings, watercolors, pastels, drawings.

Art prices current: a record of sale prices at the principal London, Continental, and American auction rooms. 1907-
British Art Center Reference N8670 A78 (LC)
SML Stacks N8670 A78 (LC)

Still important for pricing early works of art. In two parts, devoted to paintings drawings and miniatures (Part A) and to print media (Part B).

Graves, Algernon. Art sales from early in the eighteenth century to early in the twentieth century (mostly Old Master and early English pictures). London, 1918-21; rpt. New York: B. Franklin, 1970. 3 vols.
British Art Center Reference N8675 +G73 (LC)

Valuable source for early paintings sold at English auction houses. Includes buyers' names.

Index of paintings sold in the British Isles during the nineteenth century. Ed. B. Fredericksen. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1989-
British Art Center Reference ND47 I5 1988 (LC)

3 vols. so far, covering 1800-1815. Based on the data compiled by the Getty's ambitious Provenance Index. Chronological list of sales; index to paintings by artists' names; index of owners; lists buyers' names, sales prices from annotated catalogues (often auctioneers' copy). Useful survey of 19th-century art market in volume 1. The Getty database itself offers iconographic access by Iconclass numbers, and telephone reference is possible.

Mireur, Hippolyte. Dictionnaire des ventes d'art faites en France et a l'etranger pendant les XVIIIme et XIXme siceles... Paris: Vincenti, 1911-12. 7 vols.
A+A Reference N8675 +M57 (LC)

Particularly good for 18th-19th century French sales. Paintings, drawings, prints, watercolors, pastels, enamels.

Redford, George. Art sales: a history of sales of pictures and other works. London: Redford, 1888. 2 vols.
British Art Center Reference N8675 +R44 (LC)
SML Microform, Film B4488

Vol 1: history of sales of great (and lesser) collections; vol. 2: sales prices ;by artists' names. Met. Museum is said to own an unpublished MS covering 1887-1918, one vol. for the British school and another for the foreign school.

Reitlinger, Gerald. The economics of taste. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1961-70. 3 vols.
A+A ND47 R45 (LC)
British Art Center Reference ND47 R45 (LC) CCL ND47 R45 (LC)

Analysis of art market with prices for individual works.

Archives of American Art. "American Auction Catalogues on Microfilm."

About 15,000 sales catalogues published between 1785 and 1960. Available at the Archive (Washington, D.C.) and its brances (including NYC) or by interlibrary loan. Use catalogue numbers from Lancour (see below).

Art sales catalogues, 1600-1825. Leiden: IDC, 1989-
Frick Art Reference Library, NYC

Reprints all sales catalogues listed in Lugt (see below) plus some not cited.

Christie's pictorial archive. London: Mindata, 1980-
Frick Art Reference Library, NYC

Photographs from Christie's files and sales catalogues. Organized by artist.

Knoedler's Library sales catalogues. New York: Knoedler Gallery, 1970.
Frick Art Reference Library, NYC

The Gallery's collection of 13,000 sales catalogues (1744- ), many annotated by its staff. Strong in late 19th- and early 20th-century catalogues. Includes Christie's London and Parke Bernet of NY, but not Sotheby's London. Indexed in RLIN SCIPIO database (see below).

Bibliotheque Forney, Paris. Catalogue des catalogues de ventes d'art. Boston: Hall, 1972. 2 vols.
A+A Reference, Catalogues Z5939 +P373 (LC)

14,000 sales catalogues, 1778-1971. Access by collectors, places of sales, dates of auctions.

Harvard University. Catalogue of auction sales catalogues. Boston: Hall, 1971.
A+A Reference, Catalogues Z5939 +H38 v.15 (LC)

Lancour, Harold. American art auction catalogues, 1785-1942: a union list. New York: NY Public Library, 1944.
A+A Reference Z5939 L35 (LC)
SML Reference Z5939 L35 (LC)

Lists 7,317 sales catalogues owned by 21 libraries. Chronological. Includes names of owners, auction houses, descriptive titles of catalogues, present locations of catalogues. Index of owners. Covers all media. Numbers given to entires are used as a standard reference in other publications. Microfilm update to 1960 available through Archives of American Art (see above).

Lugt, Frits. Repertoire des catalogues de ventes publiques... The Hague: Nijhoff, 1938-87. 4 vols.
A+A Reference N8650 A1 +L84 (LC)
British Art Center Reference N8650 A1 +L84 (LC)

Covers 1600-1925. Gives locations of sales catalogues in international libraries, many of them American. Nearly 150,000 catalogues are indexed. Listed chronologically, includes places of sales, owners, auction houses, owning institutions. Index to collectors. Entry numbers are a standard reference in other publications. Note that all catalogues indexed by Lugt are available in IDC's microform publication, Art sales catalogues, 1600-1825 (see above), which may be consulted at the Frick Art Reference Library.

SCIPIO (Sales Catalog Index Project Input Online)

Computer index of more than 100,000 sales catalogues, compiled by the Met Museum, Cleveland Museum, Art Institute of Chicago et al. Union list of holdings of the contributing institutions. Reports data from title pages of catalogues. Contents not analyzed (yet). Includes Lugt numbers.

Caplan, H.H. Classified directory of artists' signatures, symbols, and monograms: American artists with new UK additions. New and enl. ed. London: Grahame, 1982.
A+A Reference N45 +C36 1982 (LC)
British Art Center Reference N45 +C36 1982 (LC)

5,000 items divided into artists' anmes, monograms, illegible or misleading signatures and symbols.

Goldstein, Franz. Monogramm-Lexikon: internationales Verzeichnis der Monogramme bildender Kunstler seit 1850. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1964.
A+A Reference N45 G65 (LC)

Supplements Nagler (see below) for artists active since 1850. Alphabetical by monograms; cites artists' names, nationalities, dates and media. Index of names.

Lugt, Frits. Les marques de collections de dessins et d'estampes... Amsterdam: Vereenigde Drukkerijen, 1921. Supplement: The Hague, Nijhoff, 1956. Rpt. San Francisco: Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, 1975.
A+A N5203 +L84 1975 (LC)
British Art Center Reference N5203 +L84 1975 (LC)
Beinecke Reference N5203 +L84 1975 (LC)

Reproduces identification marks on drawings and prints. Marks grouped into: names, inscriptions, monograms; figures; marks hard to decipher and Japanese marks; numbers; specimens of writings. Extensive sales information; index of collectors, artists, dealers, publishers. Standard.

Nagler, Georg. Die Monogrammisten... Munich: Franz, 1858-79. 5 vols. General Index: Munich: Hirth, 1920.
A+A Reference Biography N45 N34 (LC)
British Art Center Reference N45 N34 (LC)
SML Stacks J19 858N (Yale)

More than 30,000 facsimiles of monograms. Alphabetical by chief initials or symbols. Includes artists active before mid-19th century. Inlcudes painters, sculptors, architects, engravers, lithographers, smiths, ceramists. Draws on work of Bartsch, Robert-Dumesnil et al. Updated by Goldstein (above).

Pfisterer, Paul. Monogrammlexikon 2 : internationales Verzeichnis der Monogramme bildender Kšunstler des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts = Dictionary of monograms 2 : international list of monograms in the visual arts of the 19th and 20th centuries. Berlin ; New York : De Gruyter, 1995.
A+A N45 G652 1995 (LC)

Updates Goldstein's Monogramm-Lexikon (above)

Allsop, Joseph. The rare art traditions. New York: Harper & Row, 1982.
SML N5200 A4 1982 (LC)

Large-scale history of art collecting.

Schlosser, Julius von. Kunst- und Wunderkammern der Spatrenaissance: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Sammelwesens. 1908; 2nd ed. Braunschweig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1978.
A+A N1010 S34X 1978(LC)

Classic on the history of collecting in early modern Europe.