Main content
Book and Manuscript Auction catalogs
Notifications
Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts [Contact Us]3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
For more than a century the Penn Libraries have been purchasing books and manuscripts at public auction in the United States and abroad. During this time, various library curators and staff received printed catalogs from auction houses which were kept for further reference. In addition, some auction catalogs were saved and cataloged separately when of particular historical or bibliographical importance.
This finding aid serves as a guide to more than 750 auction catalogs for books and manuscripts from sixteen international auction houses in Print Collection 48 as well as other catalogs from these auction houses held elsewhere in the Penn Libraries. In essence this collection represents book & manuscript auction catalogs in the Penn Libraries not issued by Sotheby's (Print Collection 42) or Christie's (Print Collection 43). The collection is organized by auction house and then by date of sale. Note that there may be additional catalogs from these auction houses located in the Lawrence J. Schoenberg collection of catalogs (Print Collection 28). Likewise, catalogs for the New York auction house Parke-Bernet are located in this collection up through 1971; those catalogs published by the combined Sotheby's Parke Bernet after 1971 are located in Print Collection 42.
The auction houses with catalogs in this collection are:
American Art Association (New York); Anderson Galleries (New York); American Art Association and Anderson Galleries (New York); L'Art Ancien (Basel); Pierre Bergé (Paris); Bloomsbury Book Auctions (London, New York, Rome); Bonhams (New York, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles); Forum Auctions (London); Freeman's (Philadelphia); Gonnelli Casa D'Aste (Florence, Italy); Hartung & Hartung (Munich); Stan V. Henkels (Philadelphia); Koller (Zurich); Parke-Bernet (New York); and Swann (New York).
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
- Finding Aid Author
- Dan Mackey, Ben Turnbull, and Isabel Gendler
- Finding Aid Date
- 2019 April 17
- Access Restrictions
-
This collection is open for research use.
- Use Restrictions
-
Copyright restrictions may exist. For most library holdings, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania do not hold copyright. It is the responsibility of the requester to seek permission from the holder of the copyright to reproduce material from the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.