Guides

Identifying and valuing antiques

What a dealer looks at, why a valuation is a range and not a number, and when an estimate from photographs stops being enough.

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  Can you trust an AI antique valuation?

  What an AI valuation from photographs can and cannot know, how to read the range it gives you, and when to stop trusting it.

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  When you need a professional appraiser instead

  The situations where an app, a forum or a dealer’s glance is not enough, and only a qualified appraiser who has handled the object will do.

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  How to photograph an antique for identification

  The shots that let anyone — a dealer, a forum or an app — identify a piece: the mark, the construction, the wear and the damage.

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  How to tell a reproduction from a period piece

  The tells that separate a period piece from a later copy: construction, wear in the wrong places, marks that are almost right, and surfaces that are too clean.