How to write auction lot descriptions

Most bidders scroll a catalog by photo and title. The title decides whether they open the lot, and the first line of the description decides whether they keep reading. So put the facts that sell the piece at the front: what it is, who made it, and when.

On LiveAuctioneers a title can run to 100 characters, but the platform recommends 55 or fewer. That's roughly eight to ten words. Spend them on the object, the maker or brand, and the one detail that sets this piece apart, like a model number or a date.

A description reads best when it follows the same order every time. Bidders learn where to look, and you stop forgetting things.

• What it is. The object in plain words: "vase", "mantel clock", "dive watch".
• Maker and marks. The name, and exactly what is marked where. "Impressed flame mark and XXX date mark on the base" tells a bidder more than "signed".
• Material and technique. Glazed earthenware, sterling silver, oil on canvas.
• Size. Measured, with the units. If you estimated it from a photo, say so.
• Date or period. A date from a mark is firmer than a style period. Say which one you have.
• Condition. What you saw, where, and how much. "Small chip to the foot rim, about 3 mm" beats "minor wear".
• Provenance. Where it came from, and who says so.

Auction houses use a short ladder of phrases for how sure they are about a maker. "By" means you're confident. "Attributed to" means probably, with some doubt. "Circle of", "studio of" or "workshop of" means made close to the maker, not necessarily by them. "In the style of" and "after" mean the piece follows the maker's look or copies a known work.

The exact meanings differ a little between houses, so use your own house's definitions and print them in the catalog terms. What matters is that the words match the evidence. An unmarked brooch that looks like Tiffany & Co. is "possibly Tiffany & Co." until something on the piece or in its paperwork says otherwise.

Keep what you saw apart from what you were told. If the seller says the clock came from a family estate in Ohio, write "the seller states" or "according to the seller". It protects you if the story turns out to be wrong, and bidders can weigh it for themselves.

• Links. LiveAuctioneers rejects descriptions with links to websites or YouTube, and other platforms frown on them too.
• Words you can't back up. "Rare", "stunning" and "museum quality" invite questions you can't answer. Describe the thing and let bidders decide.
• Guesses. If you're not sure of a date or a maker, give the range or the doubt, not a guess written as fact.
• The price. The estimate has its own field. Don't repeat it, or argue for it, in the description.

Give the estimate as a range. When the value turns on something you can't settle from the piece, such as whether a signature is genuine or whether the box and papers survive, give two ranges and say what each one depends on. Bidders understand that better than a single wide range.

Starting bids work best as a rule you apply to every lot, such as half the low estimate rounded down to the nearest $50, rather than a number picked lot by lot. It's faster and it keeps the sale consistent.

Before

Beautiful Rookwood vase, signed, 1930, great condition, rare!

After

Rookwood Pottery vase, decorated by Lorinda Epply, 1930, shape 80C. Tapered, rounded body with a flared rim, in a mottled glaze moving through pastel blue, mauve, pink and cream, with soft vertical drips. The underside bears the Rookwood flame mark, the XXX date mark for 1930, shape number 80C and the decorator's monogram, which is not clearly legible in the photos and should be confirmed on the piece. Tan staining and several small flecks or possible chips along the foot ring. The glaze on the body and rim appears intact in the photos, with no cracks visible. The interior was not photographed closely.

The second version is longer, but each line names something a bidder can look for on the piece. It names the marks instead of saying "signed", it puts the doubt about the monogram where a bidder will see it, and it says what wasn't looked at.

I wrote the first version of Cataloger to draft lot descriptions for my mother's auction team. Its drafts start each title with the object and are written to name a maker only when the photos or your notes support it. When an attribution is open, the estimate says what it depends on, and details the photos can't show are written as "the seller states". You still read and approve every lot. See how it works for an auction house, or open the sample catalog and look at the Rookwood vase.