Attributions, prints and provenance

These three tabs of a work’s record answer the questions people ask of a catalogue raisonné: who made it, which objects exist, and whose hands it passed through.

Attributions

A work can carry several competing attributions, asserted by different experts. Exactly one is accepted at a time; the others are kept. This history of opinions is what gives the catalogue its value. Each attribution added, changed (including when a newly accepted attribution withdraws the acceptance of the previous one) or deleted is recorded in the record’s change history.

Adding an attribution

Under Add an attribution:

• Agent — search the agent directory, or create the agent (see Agents). Leave empty for an anonymous attribution: it is a state of knowledge, not missing data;
• Role — Photographer, Printer, Collaborator, Assistant, Retoucher, Press printer or Publisher. The printer makes the photographic print; the press printer prints a book, a portfolio or a poster; the publisher publishes them. One accepted attribution per role; only the photographer’s counts for publishing and for completeness;
• Certainty — Certain, Attributed, Studio of, Disputed, Rejected or Unknown;
• Argument — what supports the attribution; cite the evidence. An attribution without an argument is flagged: “a claim without a demonstration is an opinion”;
• Accept as the work’s authorship.

Then Add.

The rules

• A Rejected attribution cannot be accepted: it is kept on record. Change its certainty first.
• Disputed needs at least one other attribution on the same role.
• Accept this one makes another attribution the accepted one.
• Deleting an attribution asks for confirmation: a rejected attribution is normally kept; delete only an entry made in error.

What prints

Under the title, the record shows the wording as it will print, based on the accepted attribution in the photographer role: “Attributed to …” (Attributed), “Studio of …” (Studio of), “Attribution disputed” (Disputed), “Attribution rejected” (Rejected), “Anonymous” (Unknown). A Certain attribution adds no wording.

To be published, a work must have an accepted attribution in the photographer role (see Statuses and publishing).

Prints and editions

A print is a physical object: its real dimensions, its paper, its signature, its condition. It is what a certificate describes and what an insurer measures. Its creation, each changed field, its renumbering and its deletion are recorded in the record’s change history, under its number; its price, holder, location and internal note are noted without their value.

Creating an edition

New edition… opens a sheet:

• Edition type — Unique work, Limited edition, Open edition, Artist’s proof, Printer’s proof, Exhibition copy, Hors commerce (HC). A copy hors commerce (not for sale) is numbered separately, “HC” in its number (…-P1-HC1/5), as an artist’s proof is “EA”;
• Edition size — how many copies the edition declares;
• Copies to create now — how many prints to record right away.

“The size declares the edition; the number of copies creates the objects. An edition of 12 of which 3 are printed is common.” Create records the prints.

Materialise the edition (on a limited-edition print) creates the edition’s missing copies: physical attributes are carried over; inventory no., holder, location, condition, certificate no. and internal note stay empty, and no value is carried over. When the template print has its own public price, Catalog asks whether the copies created carry it over (Materialise and carry over the price) or follow the edition’s tiers (Materialise without the price), and the status is In stock.

A print’s number

Each print receives a number derived from the work’s: SB-2026-000154-P2-3/8 for the 3rd copy of 8 in printing sequence 2, …-P2-EA1/2 for an artist’s proof, …-P1-PP1/2 for a printer’s proof, …-P1 for a unique work.

This number is frozen when it is created: it may already be pencilled on the object. If you later correct the edition size, Catalog flags the prints whose number no longer matches (“Numbers to correct”) and offers Renumber: it is a decision, not a side effect. A print a certificate cites keeps its number: a number printed on a certificate no longer changes. Renumber corrects the others and names those it leaves, with their certificate (“1 print keeps its number, cited by a certificate: SB-2026-00154-P1-2/8 (SB-CERT-2026-00001).”). Every certificate of the register Catalog issued for that print counts, whether valid, superseded or revoked (the PDF still circulates and names that number), and so does the Certificate no. of a certificate issued outside Catalog, noted on the print. If the register cannot be read, nothing is renumbered.

A print’s inventory number

The print number says what place the object holds in the work’s edition; the inventory no. says under which number the fonds, studio or collection that keeps it recorded it (order of entry, archive reference, an institution’s number). It is never derived from the catalogue no. or the print number: type it as the inventory writes it, in the Inventory group of the expanded print.

It is optional, unique in the fonds (no other work or print can carry the same one, case and spaces aside: AT-12, at-12 and AT - 12 are one number) and stays editable. As in the record, it is checked as you type: a number already given is reported under the field with its holder, the print’s Save stays dimmed, and Open record or Assign the next free number are offered. When Settings › Catalogue › Inventory numbers has a scheme, Assign an inventory no. fills in the next free number, to save with the print. The print’s line shows it under its number (“Inv. AT-0042”). See Catalogue no. and inventory no..

Describing a print

Expand the print to describe it:

• Inventory — Inventory no. (see above);
• Edition — edition type, edition size and copy number (for numbered editions), Edition closed — no further copies (no copy can be added to it any more);
• Dimensions — Image, Sheet and Mount, width and height in millimetres; Mounting material, Framed, the Frame (width, height and depth of the frame, in millimetres, for shipping and insurance) and the Framing note. The image cannot be larger than the sheet. A frame smaller than the sheet or the mount, or measured without Framed ticked, is saved: the data checks point it out;
• Process — Process, Paper, Toning, Year printed, Printing period (vintage, later, modern, posthumous, unknown), Printer (a directory agent: the photographer, a lab, a printer; the exports name them in the print’s production);
• Signature and inscriptions — Signature (signed, unsigned, stamped, estate stamp, not recorded), Signature text (as written: “J. Marchal 74”), Signature location, Date signed and Place signed (as the object or its papers give them), Inscriptions (titles, dedications, lab stamps written elsewhere than the signature);
• Condition — Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor or Not assessed, and Condition note;
• Location and status — Status (in stock, consigned, on loan, sold, gifted, lost, destroyed), Current holder (a directory agent, confidential: it enters no report or certificate, nor LIDO or CIDOC, and only leaves in the current_holder column of prints.csv, in a CSV export that includes the confidential records), Location (free text), Holder and location confidential (ticked for a new print, unless Settings › Catalogue › Default confidentiality decides otherwise);
• More details, collapsed by default — Certificate no., the number of a certificate issued outside Catalog (by a gallery, an estate; those Catalog issues are listed in the Identification tab, Certificates issued group), and Internal note, never exported or printed.

At the foot of the form, as everywhere: Delete… on the left, Revert and Save (⌘S) on the right. One print opens at a time: its form is the only one that answers ⌘S.

The values of a print

Four values of the same print answer four different questions; Catalog keeps them apart, dated and sourced, in the Values group of Location and status:

• Production value — what the copy cost to make (printing, framing, shipping: the Detail says which);
• Public price — what the work is offered at, with its Channel (gallery, studio, fair, other);
• Insured value — what must be covered in case of loss, with its Source (artist, gallery, expert, insurer, other);
• Estimated value — what the copy is worth according to an estimate, which is neither a price nor an insured value, with its Source (artist, gallery, expert, other). (An auction sale’s “estimate” stays the sale’s, in the provenance.)

An insured or estimated value names its Appraiser (a directory agent: an expert, a gallery, an insurer) and may have a Supporting document: a document of the print or of the work, attached in the Documents tab (an expert’s report, an insurance schedule). While it supports a value, that document is confidential, whatever its box says: it leaves neither in the documents.csv of an ordinary export, nor in LIDO, nor in CIDOC.

Values are hidden by default: Show values shows them for the session, Hide values hides them again. Add a value… opens a sheet: the kind, the Amount (in either convention: 12 000,50 as well as 12,000.50) and its Currency (a three-letter code: EUR, USD…), the Date (YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD), the channel or source, the appraiser and the supporting document, an Internal note. A value is saved at once, without waiting for the form’s Save.

Each kind keeps its history: the value shown is the latest by date (an undated value counts as the oldest). Value history lists them all, each with Edit… and Delete…. The public price of an edition copy may come from its edition’s tier (“edition tier 4 to 6”); a price entered on the print wins (“specific to this print”). Edition price tiers… (on a numbered copy of a limited or open edition) lists that edition’s tiers and adds some: from no., to no., the price, its currency, its date and its channel. A tier may be entered again at a later date (the price rises as the edition sells): the latest one covering a number is the one that counts. Artist’s proofs and hors commerce prints do not follow the tiers.

The indicative margin (public price less production value) shows when both exist in the same currency. An insured value older than the period set in Settings › Catalogue (three years by default) is flagged to reassess: loan agreements ask for an up-to-date one.

Values are always confidential: they never enter LIDO, CIDOC, a certificate, a distribution document (portfolio, catalogue raisonné) or the distribution package. They leave only with a justification, noted in the confidential exports log: in a CSV export or a full export that includes the confidential records (valuations.csv, appraiser and supporting document included), in Export this table… with the confidential records (the value columns), in the internal inventories (insurance, location, exhibition insurance schedule, valuation) and in a Vault package that includes the confidential records. The change history notes each value added, changed or deleted, without keeping its amount. Entering them needs no licence.

The authoritative location is the one derived from the provenance chain; the free-text field is only a fallback for a holder who is not in the directory.

Deleting a print asks for confirmation: the object leaves the catalogue with its provenance events, exhibition appearances, citations in publications, values, conservation interventions, documents and stocktake checks, which the confirmation counts; its number is not reassigned automatically. The whole record is then read again, completeness included. A print a certificate of the register names, even revoked or superseded, cannot be deleted: Delete… is dimmed and the form says which certificate names it.

Conservation

The record’s Conservation tab keeps the condition of the work and the history of its care: restorations, incidents, condition reports, dated, on the work or on one of its prints.

The condition of the work

A print has its condition in the Prints tab (see Describing a print). A work without a print (a unique object, a negative, a plate) has its own at the top of the Conservation tab, group Condition of the work: Condition (Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, Not assessed) and Condition note. The menu applies at once, the note when you leave the field; a work neither assessed nor annotated records nothing. When the work has prints, the group only shows when it holds something (clear it if it no longer applies), and Condition of the prints, folded, recalls each one’s.

Interventions

Add an intervention… opens the editor; Edit… and Delete… are on each intervention.

• Intervention — Type (Restoration, Incident, Condition report), Date (YYYY, YYYY-MM or YYYY-MM-DD: the precision follows what you type; empty when unknown), Object of the intervention (the work, or one of its prints when it has some), Conservator (an agent of the directory: a conservator, a studio, a laboratory), Description, Condition observed (the condition the report found, or the one the intervention left the object in; it doesn’t change the current condition);
• Document — a document of the work or of one of its prints, or of a file of the work (the report, an invoice, photographs), like a provenance event’s proof: Attach a document… copies it into the library with its SHA-256 fingerprint and attaches it to the work or to the file chosen in Attach to (see Documents); or a Reference (a report number, an archive reference) for a document that isn’t attached;
• Disclosure — Confidential (unticked by default);
• Cost and internal note, folded — the Cost and its Currency, an Internal note.

The list is chronological, undated interventions last: date, type, print concerned, conservator (a link to the agent), description, condition observed, document (Open) or reference, Cost recorded when there is one, Confidential. The cost only shows in the editor. Deleting an intervention asks for confirmation; its document stays attached to the work or to its file. Deleting a print or a work deletes its interventions.

Conservation confidentiality

An intervention is public by default, like a print’s condition: it goes into LIDO, CIDOC and conservation.csv, without its cost or its note. Ticked Confidential, it appears in no export except the CSV with a justification, and its document is confidential with it, whatever its box says. The cost only leaves in a CSV that includes the confidential records, even for a public intervention; the internal note never leaves.

Provenance

Provenance is the work’s chain of custody: who held it, when, and on what terms. Gaps matter as much as entries.

Adding or editing an event

Add an event… opens the editor; Edit… on an event reopens it there, as it is recorded. The editor has five parts.

Event:

• Object of the event — when the work has prints: The work, no particular print, or one of its prints, when the event concerns it alone (the sale of one copy, the loan of a particular print). The tab shows the chain of the work and of its prints together, each event of a print carrying its number; the exports give the print concerned;
• Event — created / entered studio, sold / acquired, acquired, gifted, bequeathed, loaned, returned, deposited, stored, moved, exhibited, restored, other;
• Transaction — purchase, gift, bequest, exchange, loan, deposit, unknown;
• Date — 1978, 1978-06 or 1978-06-01, typed or chosen in the calendar (see Typing a date); the precision (year, month, day) is derived from it;
• From and To — agents from the directory;
• Place or holder — free text; link an agent instead when the party is one.

Amount — the price and its currency, as a three-letter code (EUR, USD, GBP, CHF…). The amount can be typed in either convention: 12,000.50 as well as 12 000,50. Only a purchase or an exchange carries an amount: under another transaction, the field is disabled.

Auction sale — tick This event is an auction sale when this link went under the hammer:

• Auction house — an agent from the directory (an organisation, usually);
• Sale title — as the house printed it (“Photographs, collection X”);
• Sale date — 1994, 1994-05 or 1994-05-12; when empty, the event’s date;
• Lot — as printed (42, 42 bis);
• Outcome — Sold, Unsold or Withdrawn;
• Low estimate, High estimate — the low estimate is never above the high one;
• Hammer price and Buyer’s premium included — the price under the hammer, with or without the buyer’s premium; a lot unsold or withdrawn has none (the field is disabled);
• Currency — the sale’s, as a three-letter code, required as soon as an amount is entered;
• Amounts confidential — for a public sale whose amounts stay private (a lot bought by a museum, the house asking that the hammer price stay confidential): the sale leaves with its event (house, title, date, lot, outcome), but its estimates, hammer price, currency and the event’s amount only leave in a CSV export that includes the confidential records, justified. Unticked by default; useless for a confidential event, which already keeps its whole sale.

An event carries one sale at most: a work unsold in 1990 then sold in 1994 has two events, each with its sale. The sale is the event of the work or print the Object of the event names, and it is as confidential as the event (see below). Unticking the box removes the sale on saving.

Disclosure — the Confidential box, ticked by default (Settings › Catalogue › Default confidentiality can leave it unticked for a new event). Unticked, the event is publishable: it goes into the LIDO, CIDOC and CSV exports, reports and certificates. When the seller or the buyer is a living person, the box stays ticked and locked, and the editor explains why; the amount is still recorded, and only leaves Catalog in a CSV export that includes confidential records (see Living persons).

Proof — what demonstrates this link of the chain, one or more:

• a citation: a publication that cites the work (Publications tab);
• a document: correspondence, an invoice, archives, an external certificate of the work (Documents tab), or a document attached to a file of the work. Attach a document… copies it into the library and attaches it to what you choose in Attach to: the work (by default), or one of its files, as from the library’s editor (see Documents). As long as the event is confidential, its proof document is too, whatever its box says;
• a reference: an archive reference or an invoice number, as free text (“Gallery archives, invoice no. 1234”).

Then Add (or Save). An amount without a valid currency is refused, with the reason. Deleting an event asks for confirmation; its proof and its auction sale go with it, but a document stays attached to the work or to its file. An auction house still cited by a sale is not deleted: the refusal says where it is cited, and merging two agents moves the sale to the one kept.

What the tab shows

• Current location — derived from the latest dated event, never entered separately: it cannot contradict the chain;
• the events, with their parties, their proof (the document opens with Open) and their disclosure, Confidential or Publishable; an event with no proof is flagged: “this link is an assertion”. The amount only shows in the editor;
• Unexplained gaps — intervals of ten years or more between two dated events in which nothing is recorded;
• Auction sales — a folded group (its title says how many it holds) listing the sales of the work and of its prints, in the chain’s order: date, house (a link to the agent), sale title, lot, outcome, the print concerned, Amounts recorded when there are any, Amounts confidential (a padlock) for the public sale of a publishable event whose amounts stay private, and Edit… which reopens the event. As with the event’s amount, the estimates and the hammer price only show in the editor.

Provenance confidentiality

A provenance event is confidential by default, and stays so as long as a party is a living person, amount included (see Living persons). A confidential event appears in no export, report or certificate, except the CSV with a justification (see Exporting the catalogue). A publishable event does; its amount is only in provenance.csv, never in LIDO, CIDOC, a report or a certificate. Its auction sale follows it: house, sale, date, lot and outcome in LIDO and CIDOC, the estimates and hammer price in sales.csv only; the sale of a confidential event only leaves with it, in a CSV that includes the confidential records. When the sale has Amounts confidential, its estimates, hammer price and its event’s amount stay empty in sales.csv and provenance.csv, except in a CSV that includes the confidential records.