The comparables come from licensed auction records, ranked against the piece in front of you. The conclusion shows its work — which sales, what they made, how the range follows from them. You edit all of it before anyone else sees a line.
John Singer Sargent
Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau), 1883–84
Oil on canvas, 208.6 × 109.9 cm
Detail. Public domain.
Someone will ask where the number came from.
Every conclusion keeps the sales it was drawn from, named and dated. A year on, when the adjuster or the examiner does ask, you can put your hand on the evidence without rebuilding the file from memory.
Generate a draft of each artwork by uploading a photograph of the work where it hangs. Each record includes the medium, the signature and where it sits, edition numbering off the margin, and condition. Measurements stay yours to take as a photograph has no scale.
Auction records ranked against the subject by medium, size and recency. Every price says whether it is hammer or premium-inclusive; at the majors that gap runs to a quarter of the figure. Foreign sales convert at the reference rate as of the sale date, not today’s.
Value conclusion narratives are tailored based on the intent of the appraisal: retail replacement for insurance, fair market for donation, retrospective fair market as of the date of death, marketable cash value net of the costs of sale, and liquidation under compulsion. Each conclusion is grounded in the comparable sales cited and the market trajectory they show.
Cover, definition of value with its citation, letter of transmittal, summary schedule, and a dossier per work with the comparables reproduced beside it. Your name, designations and certification over a signature block. Print it, or save it as a PDF and send it.
A single entry from an insurance engagement. The comparables are real lots; the concluded range is illustrative.
Plate 014 Photographed by the appraiser, recto.
| Key comparable | Plate | Lot | Sale | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Another impression — provenance Freddie Mercury Est. £30,000–50,000 · lot 13 |
2023‑09‑06 | USD 289,041 hammer £230,000 · £292,100 w/ premium |
|
| ▲ |  |
Fine impression, Vever collection (seal H.V.) 37.3 × 25.3 cm · lot 17 |
Masters of the Woodblock | est. USD 88,000–126,000 estimate result not published |
 |
Impression, property of an English family 35.5 × 24.5 cm · lot 36 |
Japanese Woodblock Prints | est. USD 19,000–25,000 estimate result not published |
▲ marks the closest comparable. Market data: one published result, two published estimates. The Mercury impression is set aside as an anchor: it took a celebrity-provenance premium of roughly six times its high estimate, and says nothing about the ordinary market for this design. Sterling converted at the ECB reference rate as of the sale date (GBP/USD 1.2567 on 2023‑09‑06). The two estimated lots have no published result and are weighted accordingly.
A good impression, light toning, margins trimmed to the image: below the Vever example, at or a little above the ordinary band of USD 19,000–25,000 hammer. Replacement is not a hammer figure, so that band is carried up twice — once for the buyer’s premium a purchaser actually pays, and again for the dealer margin at which a comparable impression can be had without waiting for one to come up. The Mercury result is set aside for the reason above.
The comparables are real lots, cited so you can check them: Sotheby’s London, Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own — The Evening Sale, 6 September 2023, lot 13 (£230,000 hammer; £292,100 with premium, as reported by The Art Newspaper); Sotheby’s London, Masters of the Woodblock: Important Japanese Prints, lot 17 (Henri Vever collection); Sotheby’s London, Japanese Woodblock Prints, lot 36. The catalogue detail — series, publisher, seal, format, sheet size — comes from those catalogue entries. The concluded range is illustrative and is not an appraisal.
Your workspace is private. Your catalogue comes out whole whenever you ask for it. Romanotto assembles; you certify.