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Glossary of Auction Terms
The words you meet when you bid or buy here, each as our Conditions of Sale, our FAQ or our About page define it, with a link to the source.
- Absentee bid
- See Maximum bid.
- After
A copy of a work by the artist, of any date.
- Asking bid
The next amount we will accept on a lot, shown on the bidding screen.
- Attributed to
A work of the artist's period that may be by the artist, but not with certainty.
- Bears a date
- See Bears a signature.
- Bears a signature
The signature or date may have been added by another hand.
Also called: Bears a date.
- Bid
An offer to buy a lot at a stated amount, placed on this website from your account. It includes a bid our system places for you from your maximum bid.
- Bidding screen
The part of a sale's page, a lot's page or the live sale page where you bid and see the state of the bidding.
- Buy It Now
Our collection of works offered at a stated price outside our sales.
A charge added to the hammer price, calculated as a percentage of it.
Ours is 10% of the hammer price; each sale's page shows its rate from the day the sale is published.
- Circle of
A work that shows the artist's influence, by another hand.
Also called: Follower of.
- Closed
A lot is closed when it has been sold or passed, or withdrawn while its sale is live or after it.
- Counts
A bid counts when it is on our record of the lot as an accepted bid: at once, or, in a sale in which our clerk accepts bids, when the clerk accepts it.
- Current bid
The highest bid that counts on a lot at a given moment. The bidder who placed it leads the lot.
- Follower of
- See Circle of.
- Guest
A person who buys from Buy It Now without an account.
- Hammer price
The amount of the winning bid when our system records the lot as sold.
- Increment
The step by which bidding goes up.
- Invoice
Our statement of what you owe for your purchases, with the date by which you must pay.
- Listed start time
The start time shown on the sale's page.
- Live
A sale is live from the moment we start it until we end it.
- Live Auction Console
A page of its own for a live sale, opened from the sale page: every lot, the lot on the block with its pictures, and the activity.
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- Lot
An item, or a group of items, offered for sale as one.
- Manner of
A work in the artist's style, by another hand and possibly of a later date.
Also called: Style of.
- Maximum bid
The most you authorize our system to bid for you on a lot.
Also called: Absentee bid, Proxy bid.
- Open
A lot is open while it can still take bids.
- Paddle number
The number our system gives your account. The public bid history shows you as Bidder and your paddle number, never by name.
- Passed
- See Sold, passed, withdrawn.
- Private sale
A purchase you agree with us directly, outside a sale and outside Buy It Now.
- Provenance
Provenance is an item's ownership history.
- Proxy bid
- See Maximum bid.
- Published
A sale is published when it appears on this website as an upcoming sale.
- Purchase price
For an auction lot, the hammer price plus the buyer's premium. For a Buy It Now or private-sale purchase, the price of the item. It does not include tax, shipping or any payment fee.
- Reserve
A confidential minimum price agreed with the seller in writing.
- Sale
An auction we hold on this website.
- School of
A work of the artist's period, by a pupil or close follower, not by the artist.
- Seller
The owner of a lot. We sell lots as the seller's agent, unless we own a lot ourselves.
- Sold
- See Sold, passed, withdrawn.
- Sold, passed, withdrawn
A lot is sold when our system records it as sold on the auctioneer's instruction; passed when it is left unsold; withdrawn when we take it out of the sale.
Also called: Sold, Passed, Withdrawn.
- Starting bid
The amount at which bidding on a lot opens.
- Style of
- See Manner of.
- Time to ask
Until two hours before the listed start time; the lot shows the exact time.
- Total due
The purchase price plus any tax, shipping and other charges shown on your invoice.
- Withdrawn
- See Sold, passed, withdrawn.