A Print Sale – A Night Auction

A Print Sale – A Night Auction

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rowlandson here describes the interior of a sale-room lit by a chandelier. Conoisseurs, observors and potential buyers sit on benches behind trestle-tables arranged in an arc, with additional figures standing at the back. The auctioneer Hassel Hutchins raises his hammer at center as his clerk, Judd, writes at a small table, his form bathed in shadow. Attendants display lots, including a large volume held open for a group at left that includes the spectacled figure of the antiquary Dr. Michael Lort, librarian to the Duke of Devonshire as librarian. Framed pictures hang on the walls and statuettes adorn a chimney-piece.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A Print Sale – A Night AuctionA Print Sale – A Night AuctionA Print Sale – A Night AuctionA Print Sale – A Night AuctionA Print Sale – A Night Auction

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.