The house · Page 01
About the archive
Provenance began as a shared spreadsheet between three collectors who could not agree on anything except this: an object without a history is only an object.
We publish catalogue essays, grading guides, and acquisition notes across six collecting fields — coins, stamps, watches, vinyl, comics, and cameras. Every entry is numbered, every image is captioned like a museum plate, and every claim about provenance is sourced or marked as unverified. The archive is written slowly and kept permanently.
Cataloguing principles
We photograph specimens under raking light and publish them lightly desaturated, the way they read in a cabinet rather than a sales listing. We name previous owners where estates permit it. We do not accept payment for coverage, and items we later sell through the shop are always marked as our own stock.
Corrections are printed, not hidden: every amended entry carries a dated errata line at its foot. If you find an error — in an attribution, a date, a die variety — write to us. The archive improves the way collections do: one careful correction at a time.