Knowledge centre
Every VALÉORINE sale is conducted online, on a published timetable, under a single set of conditions of business. The answers below explain how a sale is announced, how lots are described, and what a successful bid commits you to.
VALÉORINE is an online auction house headquartered in London, specialising in five fields: manuscripts, rare books, autographs, photography and works on paper. Every auction is conducted exclusively online. We are not a marketplace and we keep no public auction room. Every lot offered has been submitted online, accepted, shipped to our London offices and examined in hand before it appears in a sale, with an independent specialist consulted where the subject requires it.
Read the full answerEvery sale is listed in the auction calendar as soon as its dates are fixed, usually several weeks before the catalogue is published. Subscribing to our correspondence is the most reliable method: registered clients receive catalogue announcements, viewing arrangements and closing reminders for the fields of specialism they follow.
Read the full answerNo. Catalogues, lot descriptions, images and condition reports are freely available to anyone. An account is required only to save lots, request further information, register for a sale or place a bid.
Read the full answerA lot is the unit in which property is sold: a single manuscript, a single photograph, or a group of related items catalogued and sold together. Each lot carries its own number, description, estimate and reserve, and is bid on independently of every other lot in the sale.
Read the full answerThey form the contract between the buyer, the consignor and VALÉORINE. They set out how bids are accepted, what the description of a lot does and does not warrant, when title and risk pass, how payment and collection are handled, and the limited circumstances in which a sale may be rescinded. Placing a bid constitutes acceptance of them in full.
Read the full answerYes. A bid is an irrevocable offer, and when a lot closes to your bid a binding contract of sale is formed. Bids cannot be retracted once placed, so please satisfy yourself as to condition, authenticity and cost before bidding.
Read the full answerViewing is conducted online. Our London offices are working premises used for examination, cataloguing, photography and secure storage, and are not open to the public, so every lot is documented instead in the fullest detail we can provide: extensive photography, raking-light images where the surface calls for it, collation notes and a detailed written condition report. Further images or measurements may be requested before bidding closes and are supplied in writing.
Read the full answerIf bidding does not reach the reserve, the lot is unsold and is returned to the consignor or, by agreement, re-offered in a later sale. Unsold lots are recorded as such in the published results; we do not conceal them.
Read the full answerYes. Hammer prices for sold lots and the unsold status of others are published after each sale and remain permanently accessible in the archive. Buyer and consignor identities are never published.
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A first purchase at auction is less daunting than it appears. This guide sets out the whole sequence in order, from reading a catalogue entry to collecting the property, and explains what is expected of a buyer at each stage.
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Registration is the point at which an interested reader becomes an approved bidder. This guide explains the four stages, why each exists, and how long each is likely to take.
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The mechanics of a timed online sale: how increments are set, how a maximum bid is executed on your behalf, what a reserve does, and why the closing time can move.
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