Session 7
*Auction Catalogs: Collection Development, Organization, Reference and the Appraiser.*
Sunday, 8 March 1998, 8:30am

This session was co-sponsored by the Decorative Arts Roundtable and the Public Library Division and was moderated by Stephen Van Dyk, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Branch, Smithsonian Institution Libraries. Session recorder was Claire Gunning, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.

The first speaker, Stephen Van Dyk, discussed the collecting of auction catalogs. Not only has there been an increase in the number of price guides and books on the narrower areas of collectibles and annual auction sales records, but also been an increase in the available electronic sources. But the most critical source for many scholars and researchers remains the actual auction catalog. When beginning a collection of auction catalogs, the library has to look at a number of issues. Which sales are pertinent to my user? How can these catalogs be accessed? Are there other ways that the information can be gathered by the user? Aside from the catalog itself, there are some products available either on the World Wide Web or on CD-ROM. Auctions On-Line (www.auctions-on-line.com) provides access to auction houses and some information on actual auctions * often with prices included. On CD-ROM, Artfact (www.artfact.com) provides only post-auction information and only some of the illustrations, but for libraries that cannot collect the catalogs themselves, the product allows access. The final concern is in the retention and de-accessioning of the auction catalog. Space always being an problem, the issue is what type of access is needed to these historical catalogs. Microfilming is a possiblity. Parke-Bernet and Sotheby*s catalogs have been filmed and are available from UMI (www.umi.com). When the decision has been made to de-accession your catalogs, there are book dealers who will purchase them or services which will take them in trade (U.S. Book Exchange).

The next speaker was Kay Downey, Serials Librarian at the Ingalls Library of the Cleveland Museum of Art, speaking for Ann Leslie Jones, Assistant Head of Technical Services at the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries of the Art Institute of Chicago, who was unable to attend the conference. Both are members of the SCIPIO Advisory Task Force. Auction catalogs are generally bad candidates for detailed catalog records because of their generic titles and broad subject areas. But there needs to be some knowledge of precisely which catalogs are held because people come to libraries either looking for a specific catalog * the name and date of which was gotten from an index * or looking for sales of a specific type of material, often qualified by place or date (all Chinese art sales held in New York in 1983). Historically, libraries have maintained card files, which might include name of auction house, date of sale, title of sale, perhaps the names of the collectors and some indication of illustration and/or pagination. Other libraries have cataloged individual catalogs of notable sales as monographs, or more generally the catalogs are treated as *pseudo-serials.* In 1980, the SCIPIO Database was created as a joint project of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art with an intial grant of $24,000 from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. As all the participants were RLG members, RLG was able to assist in designing and establishig SCIPIO as a separate database using the software for RLIN. Over time, more libraries began to contribute to the database, and some participants completed recon projects which were also added to SCIPIO. By 1997, the number of active SCIPIO libraries reached eleven, with seven more being trained at this Conference to begin adding their holdings. The database had been created with a minimalist approach, leaving a need almost twenty years later to move toward a more recognized national standard which would be easier to maintain with the larger group of member libraries. The SCIPIO Task Force was formed to assist in the conversion of SCIPIO records to AACR2 format and their inclusion in the LC Name Authority File. The Task Force will also establish inputting standards and expectations which will encourage more libraries to add their holdings to the database as well.

The third speaker, Rod Thompson, an independent appraiser from Brooklyn, NY, and an instructor in the NYU Appraisal Program, described the method he uses to appraise a piece of furniture. He began by showing a slide of the example, an étagère * possibly a Biedermeier * with three shelves, a pedimented facade, four columns with gilded dolphins at the base, and a mirrored back. The étagère was not in great shape, but that does not necessarily determine the price. The piece is made of mahogany, which suggests that the étagère is from Northern Germany. The dolphin forms at the bases of the columns suggest that it is from a port city. At this point, Mr. Thompson begins to look for previous sales at auction of similar pieces. For this, he will need images. He uses the Artfact CD-ROM to identify similar objects. Although unable to find a piece like this one in Artfact, he found enough other objects to compare with the first piece to enable him to come up with an appraised value.

The final speaker, Lee Robinson, Reference Librarian at the New York Public Library, Art and Architecture Division, spoke on *Auction Catalogs as a Reference Tool.* She began with a summary of the various ways in which auction catalogs can be useful to the researcher beyond the most common need that of finding values. For example, auction catalogs are illustrated with high-quality, full-page reproductions, often unavailable through monographs and exhibition catalogs. From these reproductions, one can often obtain signatures of artists that have otherwise not been reproduced in the traditioonal signature dictionaries. For research on obscure artists, sales catalogues and indexes are often the only place an artist*s name will be listed, establishing his existence, and in some cases his dates and nationality. Sometimes, his work may even be reproduced. In addition, auction catalogs are essential to establishing the provenance of a work of art. Points to keep in mind when using indexes are 1) that they do not necessarily cover every sale held by a specific auction house and 2) that not all mediums are covered well in certain indexes. Other factors to consider are whether the index has a minimum price or if it covers *buy-ins* * items which do not reach the reserve price. Also remember to check for the dates that are covered * annuals often cover part of the previous year. The second half of the talk focused on individual indexes, describing the differences between the various offereings. Some specialized indexes were covered as well. Artfact is the best source for the decorative arts, but it is only an electronic database. For prints, the best choice is Gordon*s Print Price Annual. There are also some paid subscription services offered via the World Wide Web. These can often provide cost-effective service when usage is limited and the costs of hardware and software are prohibitive. These include ADEC (www.adec.com) and ArtNet (www.artnet.com). The last item covered was the format of these indexes, because all these indexes are available in paper and CD-ROM. The questions to consider are how many people need access at any one time, what their computer proficiency is, and what provisions you need to make for any lack thereof.