Art Dealing in the Gilded Age-A Window on the Art Market: Colnaghi and their Associates c. 1880-c.1940

From around 1880 to c.1940, Colnaghi played a key role in the international art market, selling important masterpieces to some of the greatest American collectors, as well making important sales to European private and public collections.  Thanks to the survival of a remarkable number of letter booksad accounts, the Colnaghi archive offers unique opportunities to study the workings of the art market during the “Gilded Age” and in the period up to the Second World War.  The archive has recently moved to the new Waddesdon Archive at Windmill Hill, Waddesdon Manor.  The purpose of this conference is to bring together international scholars researching the history of the art market, particularly in those areas reflected in the archive and celebrate the move of the archive to Windmill Hill. The conference is a collaboration between Colnaghi, Waddesdon Manor (The Rothschild Collection)/The National Trust and the University of Buckingham. The conference will  aim to explore some of the links between Colnaghi and the Rothschild family and examine Colnaghi’s interrelationships with other dealers, collectors, museums, auction-houses and scholars during the “Gilded Age” and Interwar years. The organisers invite proposals for papers (20-25 minutes maximum) on any aspect of the art market or history of collecting between c.1880 and c. 1940 which relates to the history of Colnaghi, their principal rivals and associates, or to the wider context of the art market, art dealing, art scholarship and art buying during this period as reflected in the Colnaghi archives.  

The conference will be held at Waddesdon Manor on Friday 26^th September, 2014. For further information contact Jeremy Howard (Colnaghi/University of Buckingham) or Catherine Taylor, (Head Archivist, Waddesdon Manor) at: jhoward@colnaghi.co.uk; jeremy.howard@buckingham.ac.uk; catherine.m.taylor@nationaltrust.org.uk.

Abstracts (maximum 300 words) by Monday 14^th April 2014 to: jhoward@colnaghi.co.uk.