Book excerpt: The collection contains American book auction catalogs collected by the Astor Library, the Lenox Library and the New York Public Library. Included are the book auction catalogs from the collections of Gordon Lester Ford, Samuel J. Tilden, Evert A. Duyckinck and other collectors associated with the Library. Some of the catalogs were priced. Prices were recorded at the sale, or from price lists requested from and supplied by the auctioneer. Annotations fall into all of the following categories: fully priced, partially priced, the name of the consigner may be identified, the names of the purchasers (or their agents) may be identified. Provenance of the catalog may be indicated by an inscription, a bookplate, a library stamp and even occasionally by an invoice indicating the lots purchased and the name of the purchaser.