  The upcoming NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will obtain
space-based uninterrupted light curves for a large sample of bright white
dwarfs distributed across the entire sky, providing a very rich resource for
asteroseismological studies and the search for transits from planetary debris.
We have compiled an all-sky catalogue of ultraviolet, optical, and infrared
photometry as well as proper motions, which we propose as an essential tool for
the preliminary identification and characterisation of potential targets. We
present data for 1864 known white dwarfs and 305 high-probability white dwarf
candidates brighter than 17 mag. We describe the spectroscopic follow-up of 135
stars, of which 82 are white dwarfs and 25 are hot subdwarfs. The new confirmed
stars include six pulsating white dwarf candidates (ZZ Cetis), and nine white
dwarf binaries with a cool main-sequence companion. We identify one star with a
spectroscopic distance of only 25 pc from the Sun. Around the time TESS is
launched, we foresee that all white dwarfs in this sample will have
trigonometric parallaxes measured by the ESA Gaia mission next year.
