Identify antiques by photo in three steps

What a photograph tells you

A photograph is very good at form. Silhouette, proportion, decoration, the shape of a handle or a foot, the pattern of crazing in a glaze, the wear on the arms of a chair where hands rested for a century: all of that survives the lens, and all of it is diagnostic. An experienced dealer walking a fair is largely working from the same information, at a distance, before picking anything up.

The practical rule that follows: the more of that visual evidence your photograph carries, the sharper the answer. Framing, light and angle are worth more than resolution, and the rest of this page is about getting all three right.

How to take a photograph that works

Light from the side, not from above

Overhead light, including a phone flash, flattens everything. It erases the shadow that reveals carving depth, the sheen that distinguishes a glaze from a matte slip, and the surface scratching that indicates age. Daylight from a window, striking the object from roughly forty-five degrees, restores all three. Turn the flash off.

Fill the frame, and give it contrast

Get close enough that the object occupies most of the picture. Then think about the surface underneath it: a pale object on a pale cloth gives very little edge to find. Dark objects go on light surfaces and light objects on dark ones. Plain beats patterned every time.

Include something for scale

A miniature and a full-size piece are indistinguishable in a photograph with nothing else in it, and the value difference between them can be substantial. A coin or a ruler in the corner of the frame solves the problem completely.

Photograph the damage

The instinct is to shoot the good side. Resist it. Condition is one of the two largest levers on value, and an estimate produced from the flattering angle is an estimate of a piece you do not own. A chip included is worth more to you than a chip hidden.

What changes by category

• Furniture. Shoot the whole piece in three-quarter view, then the back and the underside of a drawer if you can. Construction evidence lives on surfaces nobody polishes.
• Ceramics and porcelain. The profile is what dates a form. Shoot it against a plain background at the height of the piece rather than looking down into it.
• Silver. Angle the piece so light rakes across the surface rather than reflecting straight back. Photographing silver flat-on usually returns a picture of your ceiling.
• Glass. Backlight it. Colour, bubbles, striations and the pontil scar on the base all become visible with a window behind the object rather than behind you.
• Jewelry. Get as close as the lens will focus, and include the clasp or the shank in a second shot. Construction dates jewelry more reliably than the stones do.
• Paintings. Shoot square-on without flash to avoid glare, and photograph the stretcher and the back of the frame, which usually carry more evidence than the front.

What you get back, and how to judge it

A RelicLens report returns a reference value with a low and high estimate on a gauge, a rarity read on five levels, a condition grade on five levels, the likely period, origin and materials, a written summary and history, and comparable listings that open in your browser.

Judge it by the comparables, not by the number. Open two or three and ask whether they are the same form, in the same condition, listed recently. If they are, the range is grounded. If they are a loose visual match from a different tradition, the range is telling you that the identification is uncertain, which is worth knowing and is not visible in a bare figure.

Read them as asking prices unless a listing says otherwise, which tells you what comparable pieces are being offered at right now. It is the same check a dealer runs before making an offer.