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Sales and Purchases

Archives of American Art

Object Details

Collection Creator

Parsons, Betty, 1900-1982

Collection Citation

Betty Parsons Gallery records and personal papers, 1916-1991. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

Scope and Contents note

This suberies provides detailed information about the gallery's sales and, to a lesser extent, purchases of works of art through invoices, ledgers, record books, and summaries. Due to the variety of formats there is a significant duplication of information. There are only three folders of invoices for purchases dating from 1950-1974. Additional information regarding sales can be found in the general ledgers that are located in disbursements and receipts. Of particular interest are summaries of sales of art works by Ad Reinhardt, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko (circa 1952) and summaries of sales to museums from 1946 - 1952. The majority of the files are sales invoices. Most invoices include detailed information about the work of art, the name and address of the buyer, price, and date of sales. Sales invoice files are arranged by four access points: artist, buyer, year, and invoice number. Sales invoices arranged by buyer make up the bulk of the invoices and may represent the most complete record of gallery sales. Filing idiosyncrasies exist within this category, primarily when the buyer is an institution or organization. In some instances the invoices and sales related correspondence were filed under the institution/organization name, while in others it was filed by the last name of the primary correspondent. Purchase invoices identify the institution or individual from whom a work was purchased and establishes provenance for works that were not acquired directly from the artist. Purchase invoices can also be found scattered amongst the sales invoice files. Files are arranged by format.
sova.aaa.parsbett_ref1088

GUID

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9cb0391f2-cc07-49ef-a3ce-8c9e996a0ec7

See more items in

Betty Parsons Gallery records and personal papers
Betty Parsons Gallery records and personal papers / Series 5: Sales and Inventory Records

Sponsor

Funding for the processing and digitization of this collection was provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art and The Walton Family Foundation.

Date

1946-1981

Archival Repository

Archives of American Art

Identifier

AAA.parsbett, Subseries 5.1

Type

Archival materials

Collection Rights

The Archives of American Art makes its archival collections available for non-commercial, educational and personal use unless restricted by copyright and/or donor restrictions, including but not limited to access and publication restrictions. AAA makes no representations concerning such rights and restrictions and it is the user's responsibility to determine whether rights or restrictions exist and to obtain any necessary permission to access, use, reproduce and publish the collections. Please refer to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for additional information.

Collection Restrictions

This collection is open for research. Access to original papers requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives' Washington, D.C. Research Center. Researchers interested in accessing audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies. Contact References Services for more information.
AAA.parsbett_ref1088
Large EAD
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9cb0391f2-cc07-49ef-a3ce-8c9e996a0ec7
AAA.parsbett
AAA

Record ID

ebl-1503511935241-1503511935545-0

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Betty Parsons Gallery records and personal papers

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