PROVENANCE, provenance, provenance. This collecting phrase might have much the same ring and price-boosting effect on antiques and collectables as property's much-quoted location, location, location' but, unlike the latter, it comes with various caveats. Before you start quibbling, today's brilliant location is not in itself a guarantee of future perfection, as all it takes is the tap of a planning officer's e-signature to transform a location' plus into a blighted minus as a new road or housing development is plonked outside your back door. But try as sellers might to obfuscate and dissemble in their sales particulars, it is blinking obvious come viewing day if a property is in a great location, and worth a lot more, or not.
Provenances can be more complex, not least as the ungodly have been faking them to boost values for as long as they have been faking antiques themselves. The ancient Greeks merrily carved statues purportedly made by even more ancient Greeks to sell to their new Roman masters. I can picture an ancient Roman Del Boy cheerfully 'up-pricing' a bit of gaudy jewellery to a gullible-looking customer: "Honest guv, this was taken off that strumpet Cleopatra's body just after the snake got her. My life on it! This knife was used to kill Caesar." And, after a couple of generations of repetition, risible tosh morphs into value-enhancing history.
That's the problem with some provenances: they can be infuriatingly difficult to verify and just as hard to disprove. And we want to believe them as we all love a great story. Collectors will happily pay to add multiple zeroes to the price because Eric Clapton (genuinely) played on this guitar at that concert. Or for that particular sword that was no ifs, no buts used at Waterloo. That is where I am taking you next.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July 2023-Ausgabe von The Field.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der July 2023-Ausgabe von The Field.
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Rory Stewart - The former Cabinet minister and hit podcast host talks to Alec Marsh about the parlous state of British politics, land management and his deep love of the countryside
The gently spoken 51-year-old former Conservative Cabinet minister is a countryman at heart. That's clear: he even changes into a tweed waistcoat for the interview, which takes place at his London home and begins with a question about his precise career status. Having resigned from the Commons and the Conservative Party in 2019, the former diplomat and soldier has reinvented himself, first with an unconventional but promising run as an independent for the London mayoralty (abandoned because of COVID19 in 2020) and then as a media figure, co-hosting one of the country's most popular podcasts, The Rest Is Politics, alongside Alastair Campbell, the former Labour spin doctor.
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