Joseph and Ernest Brummer were art dealers who collected widely from the arts of classical antiquity and the Middle Ages to decorative arts and modern artists. They first established a gallery in Paris in 1906. In 1914, Joseph moved to New York where he opened his own gallery. Ernest joined him there at the outbreak of WWII. Joseph died soon after in 1947 and a large sale of sculpture from his collection was organized in 1949. Ernest died in 1964. Records primarily include the business papers of the brothers. Files date ca. 1890-1946, with the bulk of the material dating from the early 20th century through 1945. The records offer information on objects which were offered for sale in the galleries. Provenance information includes previous owners, prior locations, identity of buyers, purchase and sale prices. Records include: bills and correspondence; photographs and negatives of objects for purchase, views of the gallery and displays, personal family images; some printed/published material; account books for the Paris and NYC galleries; acquisition and sale books, with pages arranged by category, holding small photos with I.D. numbers written below (I.D. number usually preceded by the letter "P," "N," or "X"); and card files with names and addresses of clients and a near-complete inventory of their collections.
