§ 01 · Maker-mark research
Every candidate is run against maker marks before it reaches the bench.
Marks carry the first signal. Stamps, signatures, foundry punches, hand-cut dies, and stenciled factory tags are read against period references for the maker, the workshop, and the region. A mark that doesn't read is a signal in itself — a later strike, a sympathetic stamp borrowed from a related maker, or an outright reproduction. The mark, the mark's character, and the mark's expected tool all get recorded into the file.
§ 02 · Period-reference research
Construction, materials, and tooling are run against the period expectation.
The desk holds a working library of period references — trade catalogs, regional craft surveys, museum collections, and the agent's running notes from prior acquisitions. Construction techniques, joinery, fastener types, fabric patterns, glazes, and tool marks are read against what was in use during the period the piece claims. Anomalies are not assumed bad — they are noted, dated where possible, and factored into the confidence the buyer reads on the listing.
§ 03 · When the trail runs cold
A trail that disappears is a fact about the piece, too.
Mid-century dispersal, estate transitions, and unrecorded workshop output mean an honest trail can simply stop. The desk keeps a rule of thumb for that: an unattached origin is written plainly, confidence is lowered rather than smoothed over, and the reasoning is published alongside the listing so the buyer can read the desk's thinking. The absence of a trail is never disguised as the presence of one.
§ 04 · What the office records
Provenance runs leave a paper trail the buyer can read.
Each research run produces a provenance brief: attribution, period signals, maker signals, comparable prior sales, the sources consulted, and the reasoning the agent followed when the trail ran cold or ran clean. The brief sits behind every listing so the buyer can read what the desk read. The work is not just to find good pieces — it is to record, plainly, what makes the piece good.