Suit YourselftmInternational, Inc. All Rights Reserved.Suit YourselfTM International, Inc.
Fine Frivolity For Fastidious Folks.
Purveyors Of Foreign Paraphernalia To The Trade Since 1978.
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120 Pendleton Point, Islesboro
Island, Maine USA 04848 EMAIL:
suityou@suityourself.org
All Content is Copyright
Suit YourselftmInternational, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
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Many of you write us asking for more information about something you have. We understand and appreciate your concerns about provenance, and on obtaining thorough information about the art and antiques you purchase. We're glad you're curious enough to ask further questions and we hope this FAQ is helpful to you. |
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Yes, we do share
our expertise; we have a limited amount of time available to assist
others with evaluating pieces. We do, however, charge for our
services; our expertise took us a lifetime to acquire, cost us a
fortune and it's very rare.
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Our representation of the pieces we sell is available for every item on its listing sale page. Each listing sale page includes descriptions of the work which represent our professional evaluation of its authorship, quality, merits, and provenance, above and beyond the ways in which the work speaks for itself. The majority of the items we sell are "one of a kind" items. The art we sell is original art that has been manually created by an individual, passed through a number of generations of hands, and finally, typically after decades or even centuries of display and/or storage, has found its way into our hands. We do not sell recent replicas of anything, nor do we sell modern copies made in China. We do our best to describe the condition of our items, including what we know of the provenance, and to specifically point out by word and photograph anything we (in our professional opinion) consider unusual or untoward about an item. |
Provenance is defined as evidence of the history of ownership of a particular thing. Provenance is the specific part of an item's past that reveals the history of who owned it before you did. Any evidence that indicates previous ownership of something is a valid part of that item's provenance. Provenance can take the form of auctions records, sellers' records, book plates, receipts, and personal correspondence but evidence of past ownership certainly isn't limited to just these forms.
We aren't just guessing when we describe our items. We have worked in this field for decades, our family has also worked in this field for generations before us, and we have the benefit of all their accumulated acquired knowledge, experience, and wisdom. We also have official degrees from venerable institutions of learning that substantiate our knowledge and expertise.
Proving who made something a long time ago in an obscure location is not a black and white process in the field of art. There are levels to knowledge, ranging from absolute certainty to total confusion. If everybody kept perfect records 100% of the time, and mother nature and chance never destroyed them, then we might be able to approach 100% certainty about something's history; unfortunately, life doesn't cooperate. Because there are levels of conviction, and certainty is not a cut and dried process, Art Experts have established STANDARD ART TERMS to communicate their CURRENT level of certainty or uncertainty to other people, in other words, so you can know how sure, or unsure, that Art Expert is about their knowledge of something. Lack of knowledge doesn't imply lack of expertise! If a volcanic eruption or hurricane totally destroys written records, then no amount of expertise can change that fact; the records and the information they contained are lost forever. Likewise, some fact could emerge later that changes what we know now.
Standard Art Terms are used by the Art World to communicate to you the current level of knowledge or bewilderment about a specific piece. These Standard Terms are an attempt to stabilize the constantly fluctuating levels of certainty and uncertainty inherent in Art History, and to quickly and accurately convey to you what we know or don't know.
| UNKNOWN HAND - the physical hands
of John Smith did not create this work; somebody else's hands did
it, and we don't know who they are.
JOHN SMITH - In our judgment, the work is by the artist John Smith and nobody else. ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN SMITH - In our judgment, the work may be ascribed to the artist John Smith on the basis of style, but leaves some question as to actual authorship. This means, for example, that it appears to be about 98% like all the rest of John Smith's work, and we have documented reasons to believe this about 98%, however we can't prove it 100% so it's an educated guess. SCHOOL OF JOHN SMITH - In our judgment, the work is not by John Smith but rather is a work of an unknown follower of John Smith, executed in the style of the artist John Smith, and contemporary in period. This means somebody else did it who was not John Smith, when John Smith was still alive, and around the same time as John Smith was doing things just like it. MANNER OF JOHN SMITH - In our judgment, a work executed in the style of the artist John Smith by an unknown hand and probably from a later period. This means somebody else did it who was not John Smith, they made it look like John Smith did it, but they did it a long time after John Smith died. AFTER JOHN SMITH - In our judgment, an intended and deliberate copy of the work of the artist John Smith. This can include what in common vernacular is called a TAKE OFF ON John Smith. AMERICAN SCHOOL 19th CENTURY - This example means, in our judgment, the work of an unknown hand that can only be identified as to period and culture. This means, in our example, that somebody from America did it sometime during the years 1800- 1899, we have no clue what their name was and no clue exactly when they did it or where in America they did it; all we do know for certain is they were indeed American and they did it somewhere in America during this approximate time frame. BEARS THE SIGNATURE OF JOHN SMITH - In our judgment, the work bears a signature NOT of the artist John Smith. This means the signature you see on the piece may, or may not be, a genuine variation of the signature(s) we know the artist John Smith used to sign pieces; we have no way of knowing anything more one way or the other at the moment. This indicator term is often added onto one of the above descriptions of the work, so you may find it combined with Attributed To John Smith , School of John Smith, In The Manner Of John Smith, and After John Smith. |
We don't know everything. Not only are we a little fuzzy about the beginning and end of the Universe and that green stuff in the refrigerator (which is also fuzzy), we don't even know everything about our own items! If you are very familiar with one of them and have spotted a serious error or omission in our description, please let us know. We'll be happy to make a correction. The accumulated knowledge and expertise of internet users never ceases to amaze us. Please consider using yours to benefit your fellow creatures.
If you have read this FAQ and still have a question, by all means send an email to us directly at suityou@suityourself.org .
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120 Pendleton Point, Islesboro
Island, Maine USA 04848 EMAIL: suityou@suityourself.org All Content is Copyright Suit YourselftmInternational, Inc. All Rights Reserved. |