The Ultimate Bibliography of Numismatic Auction Catalogs

During the ANS Long Table Zoom call on July 8, which was hosted by ANS President Ute Wartenberg Kagan and featured Basil Demetriadi and his library, the discussion noted the bibliographic catalogs developed by Ted Buttrey (1929-2018) at the Fitzwilliam Library in Cambridge, UK. These catalogs enumerate no less than 55,000 auction sale catalogs and fixed price lists. These lists were updated through 2016 and surely represent the most complete such compilation. While the Gengerke bibliography (American Numismatic Auctions, 1990) listed 18,000 items, this was confined to sales containing American material.

Buttrey's goal was to list everything, and, while gaps no doubt remain, these catalogs represent yet another legacy from this important numismatic scholar. As a test case, I looked up his entries on the Schulman series, which represents a tangled web spanning five generations. He dedicates 13 pages to the topic and includes a handy family tree that is useful in sorting out this complicated group of publications. The Buttrey lists are available in seven PDFs files that total about 1,300 pages. I lean digital and try not to print out things, but I'm considering making an exception in this case!

Link to the Numismatic Catalogue Archive at the Fitzwilliam:
https://numismatic-catalogues.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/catalogues/

Link to ANS Long Table archives:
https://numismatics.org/pocketchange-type/long-table/