FAQ
Short answers to the questions we get asked most. Have a question not covered here? write to us.
What is the annotation card?
A printed card in the style of a museum label, packed with every piece priced at $25 and up. Each card carries the accession number, the era, the date made, origin, materials, any marks or inscriptions, provenance by city and state, a confidence grade, and a brief history or description about the object and the people who might have used it. The same information sits on the product page, so you can read the card before you buy.
The card page walks through each field.
What does the confidence grade mean?
Every piece is marked Documented, Attributed, or Our reading.
Documented means something settles the date or the attribution with documented certainty: a hallmark, a patent number, a dated inscription, a bill of sale.
Attributed means the evidence points one way without fully confirming it.
Our reading means we made a call from construction, style and comparison.
How is condition graded?
Four grades: Excellent, Sound, Fair, or As found.
Every listing also carries a condition note written after handling the object, naming each flaw we could see. Everything here is old and somebody used it. We describe it that way on purpose.
Are pieces authenticated?
We research every piece and we say how sure we are, but we are not an authentication service and we do not issue certificates. What you receive is our evidence, laid out on the card so you can check it.
Where a date or an attribution rests on a published source, the source is named. If a piece turns out to be other than we described, the return policy covers it.
Is anything here a reproduction?
Not among the one-of-one pieces. We never age anything up, and a later copy of an earlier thing is described as a later copy.
The print line is the one deliberate exception: modern printings of plates and engravings from books in our own catalogue, and every sheet says so on the back.
Where do the pieces come from?
Estate sales, stores, regional auctions, and private sellers, mostly in the United States. The card shows provenance as a city and state. We do not name sellers or estates, on the card or anywhere else.
What we will not handle at all is listed on the ethics page.
What will you not sell?
Native American funerary, sacred, or patrimony material. Anything excavated without documented provenance. Human bone, teeth, or skulls. Protected feathers and any part of an eagle. Elephant, rhinoceros, marine turtle, and big cat material. Firearms. Anything that appears in a stolen-art database.
How much is shipping?
Free on orders of $150 and over. Under that, a flat rate by the size of the object: $8 for jewellery, photographs and small paper, $14 for books, small tools and boxed objects, $22 for framed work, lamps and anything that has to be double-boxed. We ship anywhere in the United States, Alaska and Hawaii included, at the same rates. Orders leave within five business days by USPS Ground Advantage, or Priority Mail on anything over $300. Full detail is on the shipping page.
Do you ship outside the United States?
Not yet.
If you are outside the US and there is a piece you want, write to us and we will see whether it is possible.
Can I pick up in person?
Yes.
Choose pickup at checkout and the piece is ready in two to four days at our booth in Portland, Oregon. We hold pickup orders for fourteen days. The visit page has the address and hours.
What is the return policy?
Write to us within three days of delivery and tell us what happened, then send the piece back in its original packing, unworn and unaltered, within fourteen days of our reply.
Once it is here and checked we refund the full purchase price and the original shipping within seven business days. Returns do not cover a change of mind, a piece being smaller than you pictured it, or a color reading differently on your screen than in our photographs.
Ask before you buy if you want a closer look. If something arrives broken, photograph the box, the label, the packing and the damage before you move anything, get in touch within three days, and keep everything for thirty days.
We refund or replace on the photographs and file the carrier claim ourselves.
Can I ask about a piece before buying?
Please do. Ask for more photographs, a measurement, a closer look at a mark, or our reasoning on a date. Use the inquiry page and mention the accession number.