Production stories, condition notes, results from the room, and the occasional argument about what “screen used” should actually mean. Written by the people who catalogue the material.
Every lot we sell ships with a serial-numbered certificate carrying an anti-counterfeit hologram. That number is the part that matters — it stays valid long after the piece leaves us, and it is what lets a buyer five years from now check a costume against our own records rather than a story. Here is what we put our name to, and what we will not.
Read the piece →The principal costume from Red One came to us in six pieces with production tagging still sewn into the lining. We photographed every label before anything was steamed, and what those labels said changed how the lot was catalogued.
Cataloguing notes · Auction 75, Lot 135
Hero props led, as they usually do. The surprise was set dressing — stencilled crates and signage outran their opening bids by a wider margin than any wardrobe lot in the sale. A look at where the money went, hammer by hammer.
Sale report · 212 lots, no reserves
Padded hangers, not wire. No plastic garment bags, ever. Why the thing that destroys most collections is not damp or light but the weight of the garment hanging on its own shoulders for a decade.
Care guide
We default to the second phrase, and upgrade to the first only when we can put the piece on screen frame by frame. The distinction costs us money on some lots. We think it is the whole business.
How we catalogue
It hung in the training hall for three seasons and carries every bit of that. A short piece on why production wear is provenance, not damage, and why we do not clean it off.
Cataloguing notes · Auction 75, Lot 158
What the 28% premium means on your invoice, why we publish a starting minimum bid instead of an estimate, and how leaving a maximum actually works when the room is running on autopilot.
For new bidders
Most production material is dispersed in the last week of a shoot by people with three other jobs. What gets lost, what ends up in a skip, and what a planned asset sale recovers instead.
Studio partnerships
A reserve protects the consignor and frustrates everyone else. We price the opening bid where we are genuinely willing to let the piece go, then let the room decide. Here is what that does to final prices.
How we sell
Finding the exact shot, the exact wear pattern, the exact stitch that appears in both the garment and the frame. Sometimes it takes an afternoon. Sometimes it never works, and the lot gets the more careful description.
How we catalogue
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