Selling pictures: the illustrated auction catalogue

Abstract

This essay is based upon a survey of reproductions in auction catalogues – from their first appearance in the early eighteenth century until their more consistent use in the second decade of the twentieth century. Examining the role of these illustrations sheds light on how auctions functioned; it was not just the works of art that were traded, but knowledge about those works of art became currency to be exchanged. In contrast to the high end engravings and photographs of luxury illustrated art books, reproductions in auction catalogues – publications produced as ephemeral marketing tools – were of noticeably lower quality. This study of the status of reproductions, therefore, investigates the evolving understanding of art knowledge, both aesthetic and economic, and the interdependence of the market and connoisseurship.

Keywords

• auction
• catalogue
• connoisseurship
• France
• Great Britain
• print
• reproduction