The idea of the study was to analyse books printed in 18th century France and sold at auction in 2019-2020. The 18th century in France was rich in both historical events and cultural ones. And 2019-2020 became interesting as part of the auction sales in relation to the pandemic.
The project includes several aspects: historical, the process of operation of auction houses, practical part-selection of lots, view auction catalogues and analyse them, creating a database and catalogue. I observed historical aspects of the auction houses. Moreover, the project demonstrates the records (notes) of how books were sold, the information about first auctions and auction houses. The second aspect includes a terminology analysis of terms such as auction, lot, buyer, seller. Furthermore, this step is supposed to determine the main types of existing auctions. The practical part-selection of lots presents a database based on the site Auction.fr and database analysis and statistics compilation. The next aspect demonstrates steps that were made for creating the final product – catalogue.
Methodology. The research methods used in the project are varied and communicate information from a variety of sources. One of the bases of the research were bibliographical resources which provided information for several aspects of the study. First of all, the bibliography became a basis for the terminological analysis which was used to describe the main terms like “auction”, “catalogue”, “auction house”, “lot”, and others. During this step were used dictionaries and professional literature. This analysis assisted to demonstrate specific terms of the auction market and make the study more explicit for each of readers. Secondly, bibliographical resources were used for recreating the path of auctions from the beginning till nowadays including the models of existing auctions.
The study demanded the comparative analysis of catalogues. As a source base I used the cloud of the master program “Rare Book and Digital Humanities” where 38 catalogues are collected from 2020. This analysis assisted to identify advantages and disadvantages of existing catalogues and take it into account for producing the catalogue with avoiding common mistakes.
A modelling method which was based on the data which I got during the comparative analysis was used for creating the catalogue. Also, I considered the design tendencies and inspiration which I caught from digital projects which I explored during courses of the master program. One of the features of the catalogue is his hybrid version due to consisting of textual and statistical information. Therefore, it will help to produce final research results and not commercial. It is supposed to facilitate the familiarisation with the final study results.
Another final product of the study is a database. The source of data was a website Auction.fr which collects the results of the auctions from all over the world. The data was collected manually due to the absence of a search filter with necessary options. For collecting data a table was created in Google Sheets and as a consequence it was a base for creating all required tables for the further import to the constructor of the database Heurist. The data from Google Sheets were imported automatically to Heurist where all fields were created in advance to the future database. The platform Heurist provided creation of the statistical information which subsequently was used in the catalogue.
The entire processed data, which was achieved during the bibliographical study, model creation and database creation, is presented on the website platform WordPress. This tool allowed me to compile the results and present on the one platform for seeing the entire presentation of the project.
Terminological analysis
Here you will find the basic terms that apply to the auction market. They are presented in schematic form, but if you want to read the study in detail, you can view the PDF version.
Database analysis and results
The aim of the database analysis was to identify the key points within book sales at auctions. This was necessary to provide practical information on book sales at auctions.
Within this, several key emphases were highlighted :
- identify sales uplifts based on the date the book was sold (before the pandemic and a time of lockdowns that prevented regular auctions and a period of getting used to online auctions);
- identify authors’ sales statistics, and plot their birthplace and place of business, to what extent creators have moved from place to place;
- the main price parameters within the appraised value of the lot and the final price;
- geography and timing of book publishing;
- auctions and their geography.
Comparing the two graphs we can see activity in several similar months such as January and from August to December. However, it should be noted that the activity is not the same and is not equal. At this stage it can be noted that as such the pandemic has not had such an impact in terms of dynamics on the market, but in terms of quantity it is evident. It can be assumed that the online auctions allowed the distribution of sales in autumn 2020, given the experience of the first lockdown in March 2020. However, experts note that online auctions do not generate the same income as conventional auctions.
Regarding the two years, it can be noted that the increase in sales was recorded in September-December, but the number of books sold varies considerably. So, the theory can be deduced that the covid has affected the number of books sold and the lockdown has forced auctions to switch online and people to invest more time online.
The main price parameters within the appraised value of the lot and the final price.
Several factors affect the estimated cost: the physical condition of the book, the features of the book such as who owned it, the material used to make the book, and the print edition. The final price is influenced by factors such as the interest of buyers, the quality of the bibliographic description, and the value of the book. As part of the final price analysis, it was found that the lowest category was 2500+ euros, while the category from 5000+ increased to 6.6%, indicating buyer interest.
A variety of factors influence both the appraised value and the final value of the lot. In the context of book sales, the bibliographic description is important, which should be concise yet detailed, making it clear to the interested buyer what is special about the book and what value it represents as a physical object as well as a substantive one. Covid has undoubtedly made an impact on sales.
The analysis noted that all authors aspire to move to a big city, such as Paris or Vienna. But there were authors who were born in Paris, but moved to a smaller city, or were born in a small city, but close to a big city. So statistically, nine authors were born in Paris and 21 died. This suggests that Paris was the centre of literature and authors needed to live there to develop their careers. But an interesting case was found concerning the author Jean de Serré de Rieux, who was born in Saint-Malo and moved to Versailles. The question is why the authors moved and the possible reasons for this. To achieve this, it was decided to research the biographies of the authors who were moving around.
Credits
The research was carried out by Tamara Glushetckaia as part of the completion of her Masters in Rare Books and Digital Humanities.
Data presented in the database as well as in the catalogue were taken from the Auction.fr website under copyright, the educational exception of the Berne Convention applies to students’ work.
This thesis (except database and catalogue data) is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License.