Ms. Frey:
I'm not sure what area of the country you are in, but your best bet would be an art museum library. Most of the medium to large museums should have auction/sales catalogues that go back a good ways. Our library has 25,000+ auction catalogues in hard copy from the major auction houses back to the nineteenth century (almost all are annotated) and a fairly complete run of Christie's on microfiche from the mid-1840's through the 1970's (these are the "Knoedler Library on Microfiche"). We also have sales ledgers from the turn-of-the- century through c.1930's from the Knoedler's London library (we were fortunate to purchase the London Knoedler's library in the 1970's). The other source, although these are usually not annotated, would be the early gallery exhibition catalogues (we have many of these both in hard copy and microfiche). The other sources from c.1905--1930's would be Art Prices Current (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company/London: Offices of the Fine Art Trade Journal [limited to prices recorded at Christie's only]) and La Cote des Tableaux ou Annuaire des Ventes de Tableaux, Dessins, Aquarelles, Pastels, Gouaches... (Paris: L.-Maurice Lang). These are the early English and French equivalents of Art Sales Index, Mayer's Auction Records, and ADEC. While these will give you the selling prices at that time, you will have trouble trying to account for the inflation of then vs. today. Unfortunately, our staffiing would not allow us to do the research for you (1 full time, 1 less than half-time on staff).
Sincerely,
Matthew Wiggins
Library Manager
Jean Outland Chrysler Library
The Chrysler Museum of Art
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