Collecting Guides
RSS feed
How to Read Signatures and Inscriptions on Antique Paintings
A signature is a clue, not a verdict. Where to look, how to read monograms and dates, and the red flags that separate real signatures from added ones.

How to Read Signatures and Inscriptions on Antique Paintings
Before photography, there was exactly one way to own the image of a famous painting. Someone had to paint it again, by hand, in oil. For four centuries, copying was not a shady corner of the art wo...

Relined, Restored, Craquelure, Understanding Condition
Craquelure is not damage and relined is not a defect. What condition terms really mean on a painting that has survived two centuries, and how to judge them.
