Authentication & provenance
Our team documents each piece before it is offered, and submits it to authorities that hold no interest in the sale.
Intake and photography
A piece is accessioned on arrival, measured, and photographed against black under controlled light. Every mark, repair, and label is recorded before it is handled further.
Physical examination
Our registrar compares the piece against production paperwork, call sheets, and workshop records. Where a claim cannot be tied to a document, it is not made.
Third-party verification
Signatures, materials, and fabrication marks are submitted to outside authorities. They are paid for the examination, not for the outcome, and they do not sell what they verify.
Certification and cataloguing
The certificate is struck, the accession number assigned, and the provenance ledger published in full — including the gaps we could not close.
What a certificate contains
Consign with us
We accept a small number of consignments each quarter. Pieces are reviewed by our registrar before any estimate is given, and we decline what we cannot document.
Photography, examination, and third-party verification are carried out at our cost. Accepted pieces are catalogued under our accession system and offered to the acquisition list first.
Submit a piece for reviewQuestions
The examining body is independent of the sale. We commission the examination, disclose who carried it out, and publish the finding whether or not it suits us.
Any piece may be returned within thirty days of receipt for a full refund, provided it is returned in the condition in which it left the archive.
Because the record is incomplete. A gap is stated as a gap. We do not fill an unknown period with an assumption.
No. A piece that cannot be documented is held in review or declined. Some pieces have been in review for several years.
Grades are assigned by Carrick Grading on a five-point scale, with a written report describing every defect noted under raking light.
Yes. Viewings are arranged by appointment at the archive, and condition reports with additional photography are supplied on request.