The house
Featherstone Vaults.
A private dealer and collection house for historically, scientifically and culturally significant objects. We work from the Cotswolds with collectors internationally.
Three principles
- Curation
We take on few objects. An object is accepted because it is worth owning, not because it will move.
That means declining a good deal of perfectly saleable material, and it means the catalogue is often short.
- Authenticity
Attribution, condition and restoration are described as they are, at the point of sale, in writing.
Where something is uncertain, the entry says it is uncertain. Where an opinion is one specialist’s rather than a settled view, the entry says whose.
- History
Ownership history is researched before an object is offered, and the records are supplied with it.
The documentary position is the part of an object that cannot be improved later. It is where most of our time goes.
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What we are
Featherstone Vaults operates in four capacities. They overlap, and we are explicit about which one applies to any given object or conversation.
- Curator
- Selecting, researching and cataloguing objects to a consistent standard, whether they are worth one thousand pounds or one hundred thousand.
- Dealer
- Holding objects on our own account and offering them openly, with our interest disclosed.
- Sourcing house
- Acting for collectors who are looking for something specific, through channels that are not public.
- Collector service
- Advising on collections already assembled: documentation, condition, insurance valuation, division and eventual sale.
Training
Featherstone Vaults is run by Thomas Featherstone, who holds a Diploma in Palaeontology and a Diploma in Geology.
- Diploma in Palaeontology
- The fossil record and how it is read: what a specimen is, how it was formed and what can reasonably be claimed about it.
- Diploma in Geology
- Origins, plate tectonics, rocks and minerals, volcanism, seismicity, weathering and geological analysis.
That training bears directly on the natural history department: how a specimen is identified, where it formed, how it was prepared, and what has been done to it since it came out of the ground.
It does not extend to every department, and we do not pretend otherwise. Where an object sits outside it, the assessment is made with specialist help and the entry records whose opinion it rests on.
Rooted in history. At home in the Cotswolds.
A local presence. A global perspective.
Objects are held, examined and photographed here. Collectors are welcome by appointment, and a great many transactions are concluded without anyone travelling at all. Where an object should be seen in person before a decision, we will say so.
The CotswoldsUnited Kingdom
Working with us
There is no membership, no minimum and no pressure to move quickly. Collectors at the beginning of a collection are as welcome as institutions, and the standard of cataloguing is the same either way.
The one thing we ask is directness. Tell us what you are actually looking for and what you are prepared to spend, and we will tell you honestly whether we can help.