Buying & Authenticating

Buying vintage and designer means learning to read an object the way its makers did — the weight of the hardware, the evenness of a stitch, the way a lining is finished. This section walks through those tells house by house so you can shop secondhand without guessing. We are honest about the limits: authentication is probabilistic, not a guarantee, and a convincing counterfeit can pass a casual glance. For four- and five-figure pieces we always recommend a paid, independent professional authentication before money changes hands.