Methodology — how we read objects.
Which signs settle era, rarity and value — and where the edge of knowledge runs. We publish the method in full, so the market can check us. That is the standard — the way Michelin publishes its stars.
READ, DON'T GUESS
An object isn't guessed. It's examined.
A guess names the price first. Reading goes the other way: signs first, then meaning, and only at the end — a number. The curator says its reasoning aloud, so the conclusion can be checked, not taken on faith.
Examination
Form, material, marks of the work, hallmark, the character of the patina. What exactly stands before us — before any valuation.
Context
Era and origin by the signs, comparable lots on the live market. The object is set among its own kind.
Conclusion
A meaning card: the object's biography and a reasoned value range. The number is explained, not conjured from the air.
FOUR AXES OF READING
When and where from
Style, technique, material and hallmark converge into a date and an origin — with the honest precision of “around.”
How often it turns up
Run, survival, completeness, demand. Rarity is not a loud word but an object's place among others of its kind.
What time has left
Original and replaced, wear and restorations. Patina is read as a biography, not as a flaw.
Whose hands it passed through
The chain of ownership and documents, where they exist. What's missing is marked as missing, not invented.
THE LADDER OF HONESTY
What is confirmed
Signs, hallmark, comparable lots, a document. Here we speak with confidence — because there is something to stand on.
What rings true
Attribution from the weight of the signs, without a final document. Written as a version, not as a fact.
What we don't know
Gaps are named plainly. “I don't know” doesn't lower trust — it builds it: it shows where knowledge ends.
MEANING, NOT JOY
Fashionable systems ask whether an object sparks joy. We ask what it means.
Joy passes. Meaning accumulates: in a history, in the passing-on, in the fact that an object can be read and told onward. Antique minimalism isn't about “fewer things” — it's about each one holding meaning. That is what separates a collection from a warehouse.
TIES WITHIN THE ECOSYSTEM
NEW ANTIQ STANDARD
The methodology is the foundation of the Standard.
Card and certificate
The method applied to a single object.
The Masters' Circle
Live appraisers — separate, private work beyond the platform.
CURATOR