The Frick Art Reference Library of The Frick Collection announces its partnership with Brill/ IDC Publishers to digitize c. 3,300 auction catalogues from its notable historical collections and make them available in Art Sales Catalogues Online (ASCO). The Frick Art Reference Library is the first library in North America to join Brill’s cooperative effort to build a complete corpus of auction sale catalogs from the period 1600 to 1900. Initially based on Répertoire des Catalogues de Ventes Publiques intéressant l'Art ou la Curiosité (4 vols., La Haye : M. Nijhoff, 1938-1987), a finding aid for auction catalogues from the period 1600 to 1925 by renowned scholar Fritz Lugt, ASCO now includes many additional catalogues not documented in the Lugt publication. Catalogues that will be included from the Frick are not widely held in other library collections. Their addition to ASCO will augment the 29,709 catalogues currently accessible in ASCO.
Auction catalogues of previous centuries offer one of the most important resources for the study of the history of collecting, as well as a primary means of establishing a work of art's history and provenance. Due to the rarity of many historical catalogues, access by researchers was difficult. ASCO now brings together a large trove of digital facsimiles that together present a full history of sales of works of art at auction. The Frick’s catalogues will be digitized directly from the print copy in full color. Full-text searching using OCR is in development. The digitization of the original materials held at the Frick Art Reference Library will offer researchers optimal access to the catalogues, while also making a significant contribution to their conservation. The c. 3,300 catalogues from the Frick will be added in yearly installments in the coming five years. The first installment of c. 700 catalogues is expected by early 2013.
The Frick Art Reference Library was established in 1920 by Helen Clay Frick, daughter of Henry Clay Frick, founder of the adjacent museum. Each year the Library serves over six thousand individuals with a serious interest in art, including scholars, museum and art market professionals, collectors, and graduate students. One of the world’s most valued art research centers for the study of art in the Western tradition, it is also one of the most complete resources for the study of collecting and patronage. Known internationally for its rich holdings of auction and exhibition catalogs, the Frick is a leading site for provenance research. Its renowned Photoarchive of more than one million photographs documents the work of more than 36,000 artists. Archival and special collections supplement over 350,000 volumes of textual materials. The Center for the History of Collecting in America was established in 2007 to stimulate awareness and study of the formation of fine and decorative arts collections from Colonial times to the present. The Library maintains an active program of lectures, exhibitions, academic affiliations, and fellowships. http://www.frick.org/library/
Brill (www.brill.nl), founded in 1683 in Leiden, the Netherlands, is a leading international academic publisher in the fields of the humanities. With offices in Leiden and Boston, BRILL today publishes more than 175 journals and around 600 new books and reference works each year. All publications are available in both print and electronic form. BRILL also markets a large number of research collections and databases with primary source material. The company’s key customers are academic and research institutions, libraries, and scholars. BRILL is a publicly traded company and is listed on Euronext Amsterdam NV. For further information please visit www.brill.nl, or stop by the Brill booth in the ARLIS/NA Exhibits Hall at the ARLIS/NA Conference in Toronto, March 31-April 1. Liesbeth Hugenholtz, Brill’s Acquisitions Editor for Art, Architecture, and Archaeology, will have details on the project.
Deborah Kempe
Chief, Collections Management & Access
Frick Art Reference Library
10 East 71st Street
New York, NY 10021
tel. 212.547-0658 ; fax 212 547-0680
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