Collection Inventory and Valuation Record
Itemise a collection properly, so that identification, acquisition and any valuation exist somewhere other than in your head.
CV-01 1 page
Collecting and valuables · CV-02
Item Provenance and Documentation Sheet
A free printable provenance sheet — ownership chain, documents held, restoration history and exhibition record, one page per item.
Download Free · no sign-up
2 pages. Choose your paper size — both versions are laid out identically, so neither one gets shrunk to fit.
Print it and write on it
Fill it in type and save
The fillable versions have real form fields — open them in any PDF reader, type into them and save. Printing help.
What this sheet is for
Record the history of a single item and where its paperwork lives, including the gaps, so the chain is not reconstructed from memory by somebody else later.
Who it is for
Collectors, dealers, small museums, and anyone who has inherited something with a story attached to it.
How to use it
- Fill in one sheet per item and keep it with the item's file, not with the item.
- Record what you can actually evidence, and mark the links you cannot.
- List where each document is kept — provenance you cannot produce is not provenance.
- Photograph before any restoration, and note the reference here.
What is on the sheet
The layout is fixed at a size that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the A4 and Letter files are visually identical and print at full size on either. Rows are set at a height that an adult can actually write a date and a few words into with a pen — most printable tables are built in a word processor and never tested with one.
Questions
Should I record a gap in the ownership chain?
Yes. A gap you have noted honestly is worth more than one quietly papered over — anyone assessing the item later will find it anyway, and having recorded it makes the rest of your account more credible, not less.
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One new sheet, most weeks
We are building this library out steadily. Leave an address and we will send the new sheets as they are finished — nothing else, and no more than one email a week.
Sign-up is not live yet — we have not connected an email provider, so this form is switched off rather than quietly collecting addresses.