PROVENANCE: What is it and Should a Collector Care about it?

By Darrell Butler   

While appraising antiques for the Canadian Antiques Roadshow I often asked people what the provenance of their object was. It was discouraging to see that I often got a blank stare when I asked this question either because the client did not know the provenance of the piece or, more often, did not know what provenance meant.

Provenance is the history of the object. Where did it come from? Who owned it over the course of its life? Who made it? Who used it? How was it used? Where was it used?

Provenance is important to know. It adds intrinsic value to your antique. It is more than just knowing the age and style of your antique, it’s knowing where it came from and who may have used it. Provenance provides a story to go with your antique and gives it a life beyond its intended purpose.

An example of this would be a chair that we saw on the Roadshow in Halifax. It was a beautiful Chippendale mahogany chair with carved knees and an elaborate back splat. The chair was classically designed and the craftsmanship was excellent. It displayed characteristics found in New England Chippendale chairs. It was obviously made in Boston for a member of the upper class of Colonial Massachusetts. From the chair we can see the elegant lifestyle that this man and his family must have led.

What raised the level of interest in the chair was a note, which was hand written and attached to the underneath of the chair seat. It indicated who the owner of the chair had been, a distinguished Massachusetts Loyalist who was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature and had actively argued with the noted American Patriot, Samuel Adams, against mob violence and rebellion. The consequence of his beliefs earned this Loyalist a visit, on September 3, 1774, from a mob of three hundred thugs who beat him up and roughed up his home and furniture. He never recovered fully from the beating. While helping Timothy Ruggles to organize the first Provincial troops or Loyalist regiments in February 1776, the man died. None of this information was on the note, however, just the man’s name. However, from historical research, it was possible to find out his story and the story of the chair.

The provenance of the chair transformed it from a pretty object into an historical document. It raised its intrinsic value.

Provenance is important when you are collecting antiques. Ask the auctioneer whose estate you are buying from and what he or she knows about the piece you buy. Ask the owner of the antique shop about the provenance of the piece you are interested in. Is it a cup and saucer that was owned by a distinguished family or by ordinary farmers who used it only on special occasions? If it is from the United States or the United Kingdom, where was it found? Does the owner know who owned the piece? If the owner bought it from a picker can they, at least, identify where they may have gotten the piece? By learning as much as possible about your antique you will learn more about how people lived in the past.

Provenance is important to a relatively new field of history. In the last twenty years some Canadian universities have started following the lead of such American universities as the University of Delaware and University of Notre Dame by offering courses in material history. Material history is the study of people and communities through the artifacts that they made, used, and lived with.

Many Canadian pioneers were either illiterate or too busy working to write diaries or to leave a trial of documents behind them; material history provides the opportunity to understand the values of ordinary farmers and craftsmen. The journal left behind by the blacksmith will tell you what work they may have done from day to day and what they were paid for it, but it is only the finely made andiron or toaster or trivet which will tell of the blacksmith’s sense of design and skills. It will also tell you what the blacksmith’s customers demanded from his work. The andiron or toaster or trivet contains a tremendous amount of information about people if you know how to read or understand the object. The key for the material historian is to have the provenance of the object to place it into its contemporary culture.

The material historian works with the artifact in three ways. First he or she “reads” the object, using connoisseurship, to answer four basic questions: what material is it made from; how is it constructed; how did it work or how was it used; and what style or design is it. Then, based upon the provenance, the historian will research the owners and their place in their contemporary society. Thirdly, the historian will compare it to similar artifacts in the contemporary or other cultures to fully understand what the object can tell us about the community it came from.

A study of the furniture of John Warren Moore of St. Stephen, N.B., compared his American Empire style furniture of the 1830s with contemporary homes in the town. Interestingly, many of the homes had extremely wide corner-boards, similar to the wide scroll columns on the sides of Moore’s furniture. There was an obvious correlation between the aesthetic tastes of his customers and his furniture designs. When Moore built his own home in 1836, he made it in the Greek Revival style. Of the existing Greek Revival homes left in the community, one belonged to a wealthy merchant and politician, and one to a lawyer and politician. In an era when people defined themselves by their possessions, Moore was placing himself in the upper echelons of St. Stephen society. By the time of his retirement in 1883, he had moved to a more modest middle class home as industry had replaced the artisan’s shop. Material history can tell us a tremendous amount about early Canada. But the material historian needs to have the provenance of the artifacts.

Provenance has become increasingly important to connoisseurs. Read advertisements in the magazine Antiques or The Maine Antiques Digest. Dealers are providing more provenance to attract serious, knowledgeable collectors. Take time to talk with your auctioneer or dealer. They will help you as much as they can. Provenance is important.


-- Darrell Butler