Originally published in 2007 by the British Museum Press, London.

This book is for art market researchers at all levels. A brief overview of the global art market and its major stakeholders precedes an analysis of the various sales venues (auction, commercial gallery, etc.). Library research skills are reviewed, and advanced methods are explored in a chapter devoted to basic market research. Because the monetary value of artwork cannot be established without reference to the aesthetic qualities and art historical significance of our subject works, two substantial chapters detail the processes involved in researching and documenting the fine and decorative arts, respectively, and provide annotated bibliographies. Methods for assigning values for art objects are explored, and sources of price data, both in print and online, are identified and described in detail. In recent years, art historical scholarship increasingly has addressed issues related to the history of art and its markets: a chapter on resources for the historian of the art market offers a wide range of sources. Finally, provenance and art law are discussed, with particular reference to their relevance to dealers, collectors, artists and other art market stakeholders.

Porcelain imported from China was the most highly coveted new medium in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-­century Europe. Its pure white color, translucency, and durability, as well as the delicacy of decoration, were impossible to achieve in European earthenware and stoneware. In response, European ceramic factories set out to discover the process of producing porcelain in the Chinese manner, with significant artistic, technical, and commercial ramifications for Britain and the Continent. Indeed, not only artisans, but kings, noble patrons, and entrepreneurs all joined in the quest, hoping to gain both prestige and profit from the enterprises they established. This beautifully illustrated volume showcases ninety works that span the late sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century and reflect the major currents of European porcelain production. Each work is illustrated with glorious new photography, accompanied by analysis and interpretation by one of the leading experts in European decorative arts. Among the wide range of porcelains selected are rare blue-and-white wares and figures from Italy, superb examples from the Meissen factory in Germany and the Sèvres factory in France, and ceramics produced by leading British eighteenth-century artisans. Taken together, they reveal why the Metropolitan Museum’s holdings in this field are among the finest in the world. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Verdana}

From abolitionist medallions to statues of bondspeople bearing broken chains, sculpture gave visual and material form to narratives about the end of slavery in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Sculpture at the Ends of Slavery sheds light on the complex—and at times contradictory—place of such works as they moved through a world contoured both by the devastating economy of enslavement and by international abolitionist campaigns. By examining matters of making, circulation, display, and reception, Caitlin Meehye Beach argues that sculpture stood as a highly visible but deeply unstable site from which to interrogate the politics of slavery. With focus on works by Josiah Wedgwood, Hiram Powers, Edmonia Lewis, John Bell, and Francesco Pezzicar, Beach uncovers both the radical possibilities and the conflicting limitations of art in the pursuit of justice in racial capitalism's wake.

This study explores the interplay between money, status, politics and art collecting in the public and private lives of members of the wealthy trading classes in Brighton during the period 1840–1914. Chapters focus on the collecting practices of five rich and upwardly mobile Victorians: William Coningham (1815–84), Henry Hill (1813–82), Henry Willett (1823–1905) and Harriet Trist (1816–96) and her husband John Hamilton Trist (1812–91). The book examines the relationship between the wealth of these would-be members of the Brighton bourgeoisie and the social and political meanings of their art collections paid for out of fortunes made from sugar, tailoring, beer and wine. It explores their luxury lifestyles and civic activities including the making of Brighton museum and art gallery, which reflected a paradoxical mix of patrician and liberal views, of aristocratic aspiration and radical rhetoric. It also highlights the centrality of the London art world to their collecting facilitated by the opening of the London to Brighton railway line in 1841. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, museum studies and British history.

This book presents the history of a gentlemen’s club in London that was founded in 1866 for the purpose of exhibiting private art collections. It takes the main exhibition themes as a starting point to explore approaches to art, connoisseurship and display in a unique setting.