Search Help

Simple Search

Simple search can be found on the home page of the site as well as in the upper right hand corner. In using the simple search, you can combine terms, separated by AND, OR, or NOT depending on how you want to search. Terms separated by spaces are treated as AND. In addition, the '~' key can be used after a term to perform a fuzzy search.

Examples

1. 'Civil War' will search for the terms 'Civil' and 'War'. Only results which have both terms will be returned.
2. 'Civil AND War' will yield the same results as above.
3. 'Civil OR War' will yield results which have the at least term 'Civil' or the term 'War' or both.
4. 'NOT Civil AND War' will return results which have the term 'War' and do not have the term 'Civil' in it. 
5. 'diftance~' will match both 'diftance' and 'distance'.

Advanced Search

The Advanced Search screen, allows you to further refine your search. The same rules above for simple search apply to the terms you enter on the Advanced Search screen, but in addition, you can also limit your search to only return searches for a particular type of entity, e.g., Lot, Section, or Sale.

The Advanced Search also allows for searching the meta-data fields for example to restrict your search to a particular Collection or certain years.

When filtering by type, i.e., Lot or Sale for example, the types are 'ored' together, meaning the result could be a Lot or it could be a Catalog. When entering terms into the specific fields, the same rules of using AND, OR or NOT apply. For example, entering in 'Merwin AND  Anderson' into Auction House name will yield no results, as you are saying that the Auction House Name must contain both words.

Examples

1. To locate Lots auctioned off by Sotheby's, select Lot in Filter by Type, and enter in Sotheby into the Auction House Name. 
2. To locate all Catalogs from 1800-1820 where Sotheby's was the Auction House, select Catalog in Filter by Type, enter in Sotheby into the Auction House Name and enter in the dates 1800 and 1820 for date of sale.
3. To locate all Catalogs from the Frick Collection, select Catalog in the Filter by Type and enter in Frick into the Library field.

There are many different possibilities for refining and narrowing your search when using the Advanced Search page.

Search Results

Currently a maximin of 100 items are returned from your search. This restriction will be lifted in a later release.

Search results are numbered down the page with 30 items per page. For results which are not Catalogs, you will see the  symbol which will tell you that you can view the result in the Catalog page in which it was found. In addition, you can view the Catalog meta-data by clicking on the word 'Catalog'. The type of the result found is indicated as well, e.g., Type: Page.

When viewing the resulting Catalog Page or Catalog meta-data, any search Terms entered in to the Search Terms text box are highlighted in yellow on the page.