Series I: Purchases, 1881-1921, undated

Items in this series document Frick's art purchases, whether acquired through a dealer, an artist, or another source. For the most part, Frick acquired oil paintings, but he also purchased drawings, prints, sculpture, and decorative arts. Items in this series also reflect related expenses, such framing, shipping, insurance, and customs duties. While the majority of these acquisitions were for Frick's personal collection, a small number were intended as gifts for friends, associates, or organizations with which he was affiliated. The degree of documentation varies for each purchase, but can include correspondence, invoices, accounts payable vouchers, canceled checks, newspaper clippings, and descriptions of works. Among the topics discussed in the correspondence are purchase and price negotiations, attribution, provenance, payment schedules, conservation, transport, and insurance of the works. Correspondents include dealers, art experts, those acting as intermediaries in the purchase process, and artists. Most purchase files also contain the red envelopes in which the files were originally stored, indicated in the folder notes as "red envelope."

There are four bound volumes in the series: two bill books and two registers. Bill Book No. 1 (1881-1900) and Bill Book No. 2 (1897-1916) contain correspondence, invoices, and other purchase documents glued to each page, with handwritten notations. The bill books also contain correspondence concerning exhibitions, offers of works not purchased, and thank you letters for donations of art. Both volumes are indexed and contain numerous annotations. The two registers, List of Paintings owned by H.C. Frick (1881-1904) and Paintings and Other Works of Art Owned by Henry C. Frick (1881-1918), are commonly referred to here as the Black Book and the Red Book respectively. Each contains handwritten entries that record purchase data, provenance information, location and disposition of the art works, and information on the artists.

Materials are grouped by format (bound volumes, followed by purchase files), with the latter arranged chronologically by date of purchase (usually the date on which the charge was incurred on the invoice). When this date cannot be determined, the date of invoice or date of payment has been substituted. In most cases, the name of the dealer or individual from whom the work was acquired is noted, along with cross references to additional documentation. When applicable, data about the disposition of a work is also given.

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