Sale Types

Sold: (These records will appear with “Sold” in the Sale Type column of the grid window) Prices are given in U.S. dollars, the Euro, British pounds, and German deutschmarks. The “Currency of Sale” price will be bolded. IF THE AUCTION WAS HELD IN A CURRENCY OTHER THAN THESE FOUR CURRENCIES, THAT SOLD PRICE IN THE CURRENCY OF THE HOME COUNTRY ALSO IS INCLUDED (e.g. “4375 DK”). Prices for the Italian Lira are truncated by three zeros (please see the explanation, following, under "Italian Lira"). All sold prices include the buyer's premium as well as any VAT on the premium that is mandatory for every purchaser to pay. Therefore, stated sold prices are the minimum price every purchaser must pay for the lot. VAT on the purchase price or sales taxes are not included.

Bought-in: (These records will appear with “Buy In” in the Sale Type column of the grid window) LOTS THAT FAILED TO SELL which are "bought-in" also are stated in U.S. dollars, the Euro, British pounds, and German deutschmarks to the left of each entry. They are expressed by giving the auction houses low estimate, with the buyer's premium and any VAT on that premium added. IF THE "BUY IN" SALE IS IN A CURRENCY OTHER THAN U.S. DOLLARS, THE EURO, BRITISH POUNDS, OR GERMAN DEUTSCHMARKS, THE LOW ESTIMATE IS GIVEN IN THE SALE CURRENCY ALONG WITH THE FOUR BASE CURRENCIES.

Not Reported/No Results Published: (These records will appear with “NR” in the Sale Type column). Sales results for auctions are sometimes not published or, despite our repeated requests, not provided to us prior to our publication deadline. These prices are expressed by giving the auction houses low estimate, with the buyer's premium and any VAT on that premium added.

Withdrawn: (These records will appear with “WD” in the Sale Type column). Occasionally a lot is withdrawn from an auction after the catalogue is published but before the sale itself. These prices are expressed by giving the auction houses low estimate, with the buyer's premium and any VAT on that premium added.

Sold After Sale: (These records will appear with “SA” in the Sale Type column). Sometimes an item will not sell at auction, but a sale will be negotiated afterwards, and the auction house will report these separately from the lots actually sold at the auction itself.

Offered: (These records will appear with “Offered” in the Sale Type column). Price as offered.

Prices

All prices given, unless the sale type is Offered, represent either what the purchaser paid or what they would have had to pay for the lot if the lot had been sold and the low estimate had been reached.

Pre-Sale Estimates

The auction houses pre-sale estimates, if given in the catalogue, are placed in bolded [BRACKETS] [ ] at the end of each entry, e.g., [1,000 - 2,000].

Italian Lira

For your convenience, in our currency exchange rate for the Italian lira we have omitted the first three zeros to the right of the decimal point. As an example, for 1/02/1996, the rate was listed as .63780, whereas the effective exchange rate to dollars was .00063780. This is necessary because in our entries the last three zeros of the Lira price are omitted if the lot sells in Lire.

For instance, a price listed as "L7500" is actually 7,500,000 Lire. To get the correct price for that 1/02/1996 sale you would multiply L7500 by .63780 for a sale price of $4,784, the same as if you multiplied L7,500,000 by .0006378.

Rate of Exchange

The exchange rate used for currency conversions is based on published daily rates of exchange. If an auction took place on a weekend, the following day's rate of exchange is used.

We pay meticulous care to currencies, making sure that we give the right denominations for the auction houses and that our dollar equivalents are calculated with the conversion rates applicable to the dates of the auctions.

The following are the abbreviations for the currencies used on the CD ROM: