The Process
A curated sale takes a little more lead time than a standard one — research cannot be hurried. Plan on roughly three to five weeks from consultation to sale day for a collection-heavy home; your exact timeline is set in writing at the consultation.
We visit the home, look at everything with you, and talk honestly about what is there — including which pieces deserve research, which might belong at auction or with a specialist, and whether a curated sale is even the right route. No fee, no obligation.
Family pieces are identified and set aside first — always. Then the scope, commission, timeline, and handling of valuables are put in a written agreement you can read at your own pace before signing anything.
The heart of the work. Makers are identified, periods and patterns confirmed, collections grouped as collections, and comparable sales gathered. Anything we cannot identify confidently is flagged as such — never dressed up with a guess.
Significant items are priced with their research attached, and you see the pricing on the pieces that matter before sale day. Questions get answers, not pressure. Condition notes go on every relevant tag.
The home is staged like a small gallery: pieces grouped, displayed, and lit properly, valuables in locked cases. Collector previews go out ahead of the sale. Sale days are staffed, orderly, and unhurried — collectors buy more when they can actually look.
You receive an itemized written settlement — significant pieces listed individually with their sale prices — and payment on the schedule stated in the agreement. Remaining items are donated or cleared per your instructions, leaving the home broom-clean.
Our fee is a commission on what sells, quoted in writing after the walk-through — a home of researched antiques is not the same job as a general household, and we will not pretend to price it before seeing it. There are no invented figures on this website, and there will be none in your agreement either.
If a piece belongs somewhere other than an estate sale — a regional auction house, a specialist dealer, a museum's acquisitions desk — we will tell you at the consultation, with our reasoning. A smaller sale we can stand behind beats a bigger one we cannot.