Four Countries, One Record
The Beginning
This record was not opened by a collector. It was opened by a transfer — the fourth one — and it exists because the third holder attached the previous three sets of papers to the piece rather than issuing a new set.
The Story
The piece has never been reissued documentation. Each transfer added a page and left the previous pages in place, which is the practice the archive recommends and rarely sees followed for more than two hands.
None of the four holders have met. Two of the transfers were sales, one was a gift, and one is recorded only as a transfer with no category given, at the request of both parties. The archive accepted that entry as-is; a record that refuses to state a category is more honest than one that guesses.
What the file shows, read end to end, is a piece that has been in continuous documented custody for its whole life. That is rarer than any characteristic of the piece itself.
Archive Information
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Recorded holders | 4 |
| Countries recorded | 4 |
| Documentation reissued | Never |
| Transfer types | 2 sale, 1 gift, 1 undisclosed |
| Gaps in custody | None recorded |
| Record status | Closed pending next transfer |
Timeline
| Point | Event |
|---|---|
| Issue | Piece issued with original papers |
| Transfer one | Sale; page added, originals retained |
| Transfer two | Gift; page added |
| Transfer three | Category undisclosed at both parties' request |
| Transfer four | Sale; record submitted to archive in full |
- Alias
- Holder of record, transfer four
- Collecting since
- Not applicable; single-piece record
- Country
- Fourth of four recorded
- Pieces held
- 1
- Documentation
- Complete chain, four pages, none reissued
- Record type
- Provenance, not collection