Applications
Where connected evidence changes the work.
Each application starts the same way — from an object, a document, a name or a question — and is explored through Qest. These are the situations we are testing first.
Preparing a documented catalogue entry
The problem. A lot arrives with a short history, a label on the back and a family story. The sale date leaves days, not weeks, for research.
Starting point. Photographs of the work and its back, the consignor’s information, earlier sale references.
What SARVAH adds. Links each element to prior sales, collectors, exhibitions and literature, and flags what is unsupported.
Expected result. A sourced dossier the specialist can check and draw on: what is documented, what is tradition, what is missing.
Following an ownership history
The problem. An ownership chain with gaps, or a period of the object’s history that no single source covers.
Starting point. A known owner, a sale catalogue, an inventory number or a date range.
What SARVAH adds. Orders owners, places and dates on one line, each step linked to its record, with gaps marked as questions.
Expected result. A provenance account that shows its own strength, and the records most likely to fill each gap.
Contextualising a work
The problem. Knowledge about a work’s maker, sitters, commissioners or setting is spread across literature, archives and other collections.
Starting point. The work itself, an attribution, an inscription or an iconographic detail.
What SARVAH adds. Connects the people, places and events around the work and keeps competing interpretations side by side.
Expected result. A context map with its sources, and the questions that deserve closer study.
Linking records across archives
The problem. Letters, invoices, photographs and inventories about the same objects or people sit in separate fonds that never reference each other.
Starting point. An archive reference, a name, a correspondence or a photograph.
What SARVAH adds. Recognises the same person, object or event across records and records how firmly each match holds.
Expected result. Cross-references a reader can verify, without altering the original finding aids.
Exploring a collection
The problem. A collection’s documentation is uneven: some objects are well researched, others carry a single line.
Starting point. An inventory, a group of objects, a collector or a donor.
What SARVAH adds. Shows relationships between works, makers, owners and documents, and where documentation is thin.
Expected result. Research priorities based on evidence, not guesswork.