Auction and booksellers’ catalogues
Overview of the auction and booksellers’ catalogues collection
- Contents: auction catalogues, lists and publishers' catalogues from book auctions, antiquarian booksellers, publishers and booksellers from the seventeenth century onwards, mainly from the Netherlands, but also from Belgium, Germany, England, France and America.
- Size: approximately 50,000 issues.
- Accessibility: a number of the catalogues are described in the KB catalogue. They are accessible through a separate database which can be accessed via the ”Auctions” page in Bibliopolis by searching in “Verzameling Catalogi” (Catalogue Collection). Catalogues printed in the Netherlands before 1800 are described in the STCN. Available for inspection in the Special Collections reading room.
- More information: Esther van Gelder.
About the auction and booksellers’ catalogues collection
The KB's collection of catalogues contains a wealth of data about books that were offered and sold in the past, which was primarily done through auctions, antiquarian bookshops and bookstores. Some of these auction catalogues contain handwritten notes from buyers, or information about the prices or buyers of the lots. In later catalogues, you will often find printed results of the auctions as well.
The collection includes approximately 600 catalogues from the 17th and 18th centuries, about 400 of which come from the Netherlands, as well as 3,000 19th-century catalogues. Most of these are from later periods. The sales catalogues also include stocklists of publishers, detailing the books they published. The KB's collection is increased by a few hundred catalogues every yearand is the biggest catalogue collection in the Netherlands.
It offers a rich source of information for researchers who are interested in private libraries and the book market, and is also of value for people with an interest in the origin and circulation of old books and other cultural objects.
History of the auction and booksellers’ catalogues collection
The collection of booksellers’ and auction catalogues has grown through gifts, submissions and purchases from antiquarian booksellers. In the past, the librarians of the KB registered and stored the book auction catalogues that were sent to them. Librarian P.C. Molhuijsen added the antiquarian booksellers’ and fund catalogues in 1922. The catalogues were gathered together in 1924.
The collection was registered in a digital database in the 1990s, and although the database itself is now closed off, it can still be searched via the website Bibliopolis. Since 2015, newly received Dutch catalogues are also described in the KB catalogue.
Accessibility of the auction and booksellers’ catalogues collection
Accessibility: a number of the catalogues are described in the KB catalogue. The catalogues described up to 2005 can be found via a separate database, ”Veilingen” (”Verzameling catalogi”) (English: “Auctions” (”Collection of catalogues”)), on Bibliopolis. You can search using various terms, such as name, auction house, dates, subjects and names of collectors. Catalogues printed in the Netherlands before 1800 are described in the STCN. The documents can be inspected in the Special Collections reading room.
Pre-1800 catalogues have been published on microfiche as part of the Dutch Book Sales Catalogues 1599-1800 project (on display in the micro-reader room in the KB reading room). These catalogues can also be found via Brill's database Book Sales Catalogues of the Dutch Republic Online, which is freely accessible in the KB via digital files.
Literature about the collection auction and booksellers’ catalogues
Book
- Selm, B. van. Dutch Book Sales Catalogues 1599-1800. Inter Document Company, 1990.
Article
- Gruys, J.A.. ‘De Verzameling Catalogi van de Koninklijke Bibliotheek’. Ne quid periret: 35 jaar boekhistorische artikelen. Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 2007, pp. 1-8.
