Advanced Search For Art Records

Fill in the form with your search criteria and click "find records". This search will return a list of art records. Click on each field below for more information. See sample art searches.

Sample Art Searches:

• Find all works of art by Rembrandt

In the Artist field, enter "Rembrandt". Click Find Records button.

• Find all art valued at more than 300 guilders

In the Price (guilders) field, select "Greater Than" and enter "300" in the field. Click Find Records button.

• Find all plaster casts owned by artists

In the Object Type field, enter "plaster" and in the Owner Occupation field, enter "artist". Click Find Records button.

Inventory Number the inventory number, as assigned by Montias.

Archive Type For example, "Notarial", "Orphan Chamber", or "Desolate Boedelskamer".

Call Number The call number assigned by the Amsterdam City Archives. For example, "NA 1066".

The Inventory Date field contains the date the inventory was taken. Enter year first, e.g. "1597/10/01". To search date ranges use dates separated by "..." (n.b. "1600/1/1...1610/12/31" will return everything from 1600-1610, while "1600...1610" will return everything in between 1600 and 1610).

Purpose specifies the occasion on which the inventory was taken. Example, "death inventory", "insolvent individual", "auction".

Introductory Text is the verbatim text of the introduction and the postscript, written in Dutch, of the inventory or sale in the original document.

Notary The name of the person who notarized the document or the auction master. For example, "F. Uyttenbogaert".

Appraiser The names of the appraisers of the inventory; these may be the sworn appraisers of the city – gesworene taxeersters -- or the specialists from the St. Lucas guild who wrote up – and sometimes appraised – the works of art in the inventory. (e.g. "Lijsbeth Martens").

Number of Items is a count of the items listed in the inventory. For example "25".

Total Inventory Value For the purposes of searching, inventory value here is a rounded integer of the total worth of the inventory in gulden. Within the records themselves, a more precise value, listing gulden, stuivers, and penningen may be offered.

Total Art Value For the purposes of searching, art value here is a rounded integer of the total worth of the art in the inventory in gulden. Within the records themselves, a more precise value, listing gulden, stuivers, and penningen may be offered.

Total Book Value For the purposes of searching, book value here is a rounded integer of the total worth of the books in the inventory in gulden. Within the records themselves, a more precise value, listing gulden, stuivers, and penningen may be offered.

Family Name is the last name of the owner of the goods in the inventory, for example "Bergh". (n.b. be sure to try alternate spellings)

Owner Name is the full inverted name of the owner of the goods in the inventory, for example "Bergh, Jan van den". (n.b. this will search on any words entered)

Owner Notes identifies the owner of the goods (ex.: "late wife of Evert Jansen") or indicates any co-owners (ex.: "and his widow Anna Claes").

Owner Religion identifies the religious affiliation of the owner of the goods, for example "Reformed", "Calvinist", "Lutheran", "Roman Catholic", "Anabaptist/Mennonite", or "Jewish".

Type of Marriage Ceremony contains a code indicating whether the owner of the goods was married in a secular or religious ceremony. "K" signifies that the ceremony took place in the church (in de kerk). In most cases, this is referring to the Reformed Church. "Pui" (sometimes just "P") denotes a secular ceremony that was posted on the pui or façade of the town hall.

Occupation identifies the occupation of the owner of the goods, for example "merchant" or "artist". Often a more general category like "merchant (largescale)" is followed by a more specific one "wine, brandy" see all occupations

Residence includes information about the location of the residence of the owner. For example, "Op de Oude Singel omtrent de gasthuijs Molenbrugh in Amsterdam".

Commentary In this field, all the information available has been entered about the owner of the goods sold or about the individual at whose request the inventory was taken or the sale was made. The sources are abbreviated. In addition to outside sources, Montias often refers to information about buyers of individual works of art (see Montias2 Record# field below).

Montias2 Record # (often cited as "On the buyer, see R 39852", enter number only "39852") points the researcher to historical information gathered on buyers of works of art. These numbers refer to legacy data that may be inaccurate, so if your search yields no results, try a keyword search on Buyer Name or Buyer Notes instead.

Montias1 Record # is for searching art by "Montias1" (inventory) database records. Montias only rarely refers to these numbers in his commentary, preferring instead to cite the inventory numbers (cited as INVNO).

Artist Use this field to search for works by a specific named artist. For example, "Porcellis, Jan (I)". You can search on all or part of the name. For example, "rembrandt" for "Rembrandt van Rijn".

Verbatim Entry is a literal transcription of the entry as it appeared in the original Dutch inventory. For example, drie groote stucken schilderij landschappen.

Title is derived from the literal transcription of the object as it appeared in the original Dutch inventory. For example, landschap.

Subject is the general theme of the work of art. For example, "landscape", "genre", "New Testament", "portraits", "still life", et.al. Use the field to find works of a certain subject. see all subject terms

Object Type is the type of object identified in the inventory. For example, "painting", "print", "statue", "crucifix", "map", "coat-of-arms", et.al. see all object types

Room In some cases, the location of the object inventoried is recorded. These are transcribed in the original Dutch, for example, Op't groten bovencamer.

Price The approximate value in gulden. Within the records themselves, a more precise value, listing gulden,stuivers, and penningen may be offered. Use this field to find objects of a certain value.

Buyer Name Buyer Name refers to the full name of the buyer of an object at auction. For example, "Jacob Cornelisz." Use the field to locate inventories of objects auctioned to a certain buyer.

Buyer Notes Buyer Notes is a long text field where Montias included original research and biographical information about the buyer and the buyer's family. The notes often refer to external sources or the buyer notes in other art object records (Montias2 Record #).

Buyer Occupation identifies the occupation of the buyer of the object listed in the inventory, for example "merchant" or "artist". Often a more general category like "merchant (largescale)" is followed by a more specific one "wine, brandy". see all occupations

Buyer Religion identifies the religious affiliation of the buyer of the object, for example "Reformed", "Calvinist", "Lutheran", "Roman Catholic", "Anabaptist/Mennonite", or "Jewish".