The house

Patina was founded on the belief that the catalogue entry is the product. Anyone can photograph a picture. What a house is actually paid for is the research behind it: establishing who made the thing, when, from what, who has owned it since, and what condition it is genuinely in — and then standing behind that record in writing.

We hold six sales a year across six departments from one saleroom in Mayfair. We deliberately do not sell everything: property we cannot catalogue to that standard is declined, and we will say so plainly rather than take it on and disappoint a consignor.

Examination

Every painting offered is examined under raking light and ultraviolet before it is catalogued, and the resulting photography is available to any registered bidder on request. Where a work has been restored we say so, where a signature is doubtful we say so, and where an attribution rests on opinion rather than documentation we name whose opinion it is.