A specialist, in the proper sense

We accept responsibility for what we sell. That is the whole of our method.

The firm was founded on a simple conviction: a serious collector should not have to verify a description. Every object we offer is examined before it is accepted, described in language we are prepared to defend, and photographed to publication standard.

VALÉORINE keeps no permanent departments, no standing staff of experts and no directory of resident specialists. Instead, each catalogue is prepared in collaboration with independent specialists engaged for that sale alone, chosen for their standing in its particular subject — a fifteenth-century book of hours, a scientific quarto, a photographic archive, an engraved wall map.

Those specialists contribute catalogue research, provenance studies, condition analysis and scholarly expertise. Their names, biographies, fields of expertise, selected publications and professional affiliations are published with the catalogue to which they have contributed, and only there.

We decline objects. Frequently. A firm that accepts everything is a listings site with better typography, and the catalogue is the only thing we truly sell.

Sales are conducted exclusively online, on our own platform: there is no saleroom, no telephone bidding and no floor. Owners are guided in writing at every stage — from receipt of the submission to settlement of the proceeds. Buyers receive condition reports, provenance and documentation before bidding opens, never after.