Art & Architecture Collection > Art Research: Beginning Strategies - A Research Guide

How To Research Art Object

Art objects may be less easy to identify. However, there are reference tools available that can help in the identification process, covering where and when an object was made. Other resources are biographical in focus, and will help to locate an object's artist, designer, or manufacturing firm. Certain items, such as pottery and metalware, may have a maker's mark, or hallmark, that can be checked against a published guide to specific types of hallmarks. Encyclopedias and guides to types of decorative art forms can be consulted. Many specialized reference tools have also been published to assist in identifying the origins of various objects. Some examples of these works are:

Boger,Louise Ade.  The Complete Guide to Furniture Styles.  New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,  1959. [MOF]
Semowich, Charles J.  American Furniture Craftsmen Working Prior to 1920. Westport, Connecticut : Greenwood Press, 1984. [MOF 84-3202]
Florence, Gene.  The Collector's Encyclopedia of Depression Glass. Paducah, Kentucky : Collectors Books, 1990. [MPW 90-191]
Pickford, Ian, ed.  Jackson's Gold and Silver Marks of England, Scotland and Ireland.  Woodbridge, Suffolk : Antique Collector's Club, Ltd.,1989. [MNP 89-26552]
Rainwater, Dorothy.  Encyclopedia of American Silver Manufacturers. New York : Crown Publishers, 1975.
[MNP 76-2752]
Rontgen, Robert E.  Marks on German, Bohemian and Austrian Porcelain, 1710 to the Present. Exton, Pennsylvannia : Schiffer Publishing Co. , 1981. [MPK 89-21208]
Neff, Ian and Maggs, Carol.  Dictionary of Oriental Rugs: With a Monograph on Identification by Weave. New York : Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1979. [MOP 80-172]

Subject headings can yield pertinent categories. Check the Library of Congress Subject Headings volumes for the appropriate entries. In CATNYP, the online catalog of the New York Public Library some useful headings to search are:

Furniture--Styles
Furniture Workers
Glass, Colored
Cut Glass
Art Metal-Work
Pewter--Marks
Silverwork
Rugs--Private Collections
Rugs, Prayer
Textile Fabrics