Saleroom Fiction versus Provenance

This article examines a group of twelve fragments in different languages and different scripts previously held in the Schøyen collection in London and Oslo. After they first emerged on the market in 1993, these fragments received colourful hypothetical and/or fictional pseudo-provenances. However, a consideration of the material logic of these parchment fragments (including folding lines and sewing holes) as well as an examination of the Arabic marginal manuscript notes they carry allows us to re-establish their historical trajectory from the seventh/thirteenth century onwards. At this point, they became part of Muslim Damascene manuscript culture and were reused as wrappers for small booklets in the scholarly field of ḥadīth. In the late ninth/fifteenth century, these booklets were subjected to a massive binding project and the fragments went into new large volumes. This article thus suggests approaches to use provenance research in order to re-historicize decontextualized fragments in modern collections.

Mapping the networks of ownership and distribution of rare books in Special Collections at the University of Auckland General Library

<p>The extent and research potential of provenance evidence in rare books in Special Collections at the University of Auckland General Library is largely uncharted territory. This project helps fill that gap by examining the provenance evidence, such as inscriptions, bookplates and stamps, in some of those rare books to identify any networks or patterns in their ownership history and distribution. A purposive sample of 291 pre-1851 volumes on New Zealand and Pacific-related travel and exploration was examined for provenance evidence within a qualitative framework and an historical case study design. Taking a subset of those books, which were bequeathed to the Library by Alfred Kidd (1851-1917), the project then examined other works from his bequest to further explore the scope of provenance evidence. The project demonstrated the value of treating books as artefacts, exposing a wealth of provenance evidence and providing snapshots of the ownership and distribution histories of some volumes. Overall, 71 percent of the sample contained evidence for identifiable agents: 88 former owners, 14 booksellers, one auction house and nine book binders. The project also discussed lesser-known New Zealand book collectors who merit further study, including Alfred Kidd, Sir George Fowlds, Arthur Chappell and Allan North. Further provenance research into this collection and the provenance-related cataloguing practices in New Zealand libraries would generate additional useful insights.</p>

Mapping the networks of ownership and distribution of rare books in Special Collections at the University of Auckland General Library

<p>The extent and research potential of provenance evidence in rare books in Special Collections at the University of Auckland General Library is largely uncharted territory. This project helps fill that gap by examining the provenance evidence, such as inscriptions, bookplates and stamps, in some of those rare books to identify any networks or patterns in their ownership history and distribution. A purposive sample of 291 pre-1851 volumes on New Zealand and Pacific-related travel and exploration was examined for provenance evidence within a qualitative framework and an historical case study design. Taking a subset of those books, which were bequeathed to the Library by Alfred Kidd (1851-1917), the project then examined other works from his bequest to further explore the scope of provenance evidence. The project demonstrated the value of treating books as artefacts, exposing a wealth of provenance evidence and providing snapshots of the ownership and distribution histories of some volumes. Overall, 71 percent of the sample contained evidence for identifiable agents: 88 former owners, 14 booksellers, one auction house and nine book binders. The project also discussed lesser-known New Zealand book collectors who merit further study, including Alfred Kidd, Sir George Fowlds, Arthur Chappell and Allan North. Further provenance research into this collection and the provenance-related cataloguing practices in New Zealand libraries would generate additional useful insights.</p>

Narratives of the provenance of art and antiquities on the market and the reality of origins at the source

This essay presents the findings of the International Conference on Handling of Cultural Goods and Financing of Political Violence and introduces provenance research that examines the market in Europe for antiquities from Asia and the market in North America for antiquities from Europe. It summarises findings, such as the involvement of violent political organisations, transnational organised criminals and politically-exposed persons (PEPs) in illicit trafficking of cultural objects. It also highlights some foundations for progress, such as enhanced traceability and due diligence in the art market, plus action and cooperation to respond to illicit flows as regional problems. On cover:ANNIBALE CARRACCI (BOLOGNA 1560 - ROME 1609), An Allegory of Truth and Time c. 1584-1585.Oil on canvas | 130,0 x 169,6 cm. (support, canvas/panel/str external) | RCIN 404770Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021.

Retracing the Footsteps

The paper presents preliminary research into the original scope of the Skušek Collection, based on four lists and an old museum inventory entry of the collection of Asian art collected by Ivan Skušek Jr. during his six-year stay in China between 1914 and 1920. Furthermore, it presents the cross-referencing of the mentioned documents with the first inventory record when it was formally taken over by the National Museum of Slovenia in an attempt to recreate the original scope of the collection. Through analysis and comparison of these records and with support of photographic sources this research attempts to put objects of the Skušeks’ original collection into four different groups based on provenance research. Through several case studies it gives new insights into the dynamics of the largely unknown parts of history of the collection, and the paths some of the individual objects travelled over several decades in the first half of the 20th century.

The Tira of Don Martín

This article follows the history of the Tira of don Martín, also known as the Codex Saville, from its creation to its preservation in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. A document concerning migration, altepetl (polity) foundation, and rulership, it provided a living record of Nahua chronology from 1402 to 1545, through the arrival of Europeans on horseback, the conquest of Tenochtitlan in 1521, and the foundation of a local Christian church. Little studied since the 1920s when acquired by the Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation, it is a completely Nahua document with older pictographic text as well as Nahuatl written in Latin characters. The very form of the tira suggests continuity rather than rupture in the course of European colonization and evangelization. New approaches to Mesoamerican history and materiality at the conquest’s quincentenary mean the time is ripe for a new touchstone analysis of this document that emphasizes specificity, locality, and continuity rather than rupture driven by European invasion. This article integrates diagnostic imaging, scientific and ethnohistorical analyses, and provenance research with a renewed focus on the Nahuatl language and pictographic communication.

s2p: Provenance Research for Stream Processing System

The main purpose of our provenance research for DSP (distributed stream processing) systems is to analyze abnormal results. Provenance for these systems is not nontrivial because of the ephemerality of stream data and instant data processing mode in modern DSP systems. Challenges include but are not limited to an optimization solution for avoiding excessive runtime overhead, reducing provenance-related data storage, and providing it in an easy-to-use fashion. Without any prior knowledge about which kinds of data may finally lead to the abnormal, we have to track all transformations in detail, which potentially causes hard system burden. This paper proposes s2p (Stream Process Provenance), which mainly consists of online provenance and offline provenance, to provide fine- and coarse-grained provenance in different precision. We base our design of s2p on the fact that, for a mature online DSP system, the abnormal results are rare, and the results that require a detailed analysis are even rarer. We also consider state transition in our provenance explanation. We implement s2p on Apache Flink named as s2p-flink and conduct three experiments to evaluate its scalability, efficiency, and overhead from end-to-end cost, throughput, and space overhead. Our evaluation shows that s2p-flink incurs a 13% to 32% cost overhead, 11% to 24% decline in throughput, and few additional space costs in the online provenance phase. Experiments also demonstrates the s2p-flink can scale well. A case study is presented to demonstrate the feasibility of the whole s2p solution.

Explorations In Collections Care: Martin And Osa Johnson Glass Negatives In The Permanent Collection At The George Eastman House

This paper discusses a professional practical project that dealt with the collections care undertaken for one instance of found-in-collections material. Consisting of 336 four-by-five and five-by-seven gelatin glass plate negatives by American travel and wildlife filmmakers Martin and Osa Johnson, the material had been cared for in the vaults of the permanent collection at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film for many years without the establishment of official acquisition or public accessibility. The project discussed in this paper involved the trajectory of care required to make the Johnson material available, including provenance research, official acquisition, registration documentation, cataloguing, and housing improvements. The paper discusses this process, analyzing decisions made from issues of arrangement to culturally-sensitive description in associated cataloguing records. Finally, this paper suggests avenues for potential use of the Johnson material, arguing for the possibilities afforded by accessibility.

Explorations In Collections Care: Martin And Osa Johnson Glass Negatives In The Permanent Collection At The George Eastman House

This paper discusses a professional practical project that dealt with the collections care undertaken for one instance of found-in-collections material. Consisting of 336 four-by-five and five-by-seven gelatin glass plate negatives by American travel and wildlife filmmakers Martin and Osa Johnson, the material had been cared for in the vaults of the permanent collection at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film for many years without the establishment of official acquisition or public accessibility. The project discussed in this paper involved the trajectory of care required to make the Johnson material available, including provenance research, official acquisition, registration documentation, cataloguing, and housing improvements. The paper discusses this process, analyzing decisions made from issues of arrangement to culturally-sensitive description in associated cataloguing records. Finally, this paper suggests avenues for potential use of the Johnson material, arguing for the possibilities afforded by accessibility.