The catalog (or catalogue) is the curated list of lots in an auction, traditionally printed as a bound booklet and now usually published online. Each lot has a number, photo, title, description, condition notes, estimate, and provenance. The catalog is both a marketing piece and a legal record of what’s being sold.
Major auction houses publish their catalogs weeks before the sale to give serious bidders time to research lots, request additional photos, or schedule a preview visit. For commercial timed auctions, the “catalog” is just the live web listing. Catalog quality — photo clarity, description accuracy, condition honesty — correlates strongly with hammer prices.
Hard-bound printed catalogs from major auction houses (Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Bonhams) are themselves collectibles. Vintage catalogs from landmark sales sell for thousands of dollars at secondary auctions. The catalog also functions as the legal description of each lot — a buyer’s post-sale claim against an item’s description has to be tested against the catalog text, not against verbal claims made on the floor. For this reason, catalog descriptions are typically reviewed by auction-house specialists and legal counsel before publication, especially for high-value items.