author
William B. Norman
A late 19th-century New York auctioneer, he is remembered through richly detailed sale catalogs that now double as snapshots of American collecting culture. His surviving works on antiquities and art offer a window into the tastes, markets, and museum-world interests of his time.
1 Audiobook
American Antiquities. Auction Catalogue, January 8, 1898
by William B. Norman
About the author
Active in New York in the late 1800s, William B. Norman worked as an auctioneer associated with the Fifth Avenue Auction Rooms. Library and catalog records credit him on sales involving antiquities, paintings, miniatures, and other works of art, showing that he moved in the busy world of collectors, dealers, and public auctions.
Today, he is best known as the named author or auctioneer behind catalogs such as American Antiquities. Auction Catalogue, January 8, 1898. Those publications were created to promote sales, but they also preserve careful descriptions of objects that interested buyers of the period, from archaeological material to fine and decorative art.
Some art-historical records identify him as an American auctioneer who died in 1906. While biographical details about his personal life are limited in the sources available here, his catalogs remain useful historical documents for readers interested in antiques, collecting, and the trade in art at the turn of the 20th century.