Conditions of sale

Hammer & Co acts as agent for the seller unless the catalogue states otherwise. A contract of sale is made between the seller and the buyer; the house is not a party to it except where a lot is marked △, in which case the house owns the lot in whole or in part and is selling as principal.

The auctioneer has absolute discretion to refuse a bid, to advance the bidding as they see fit, to withdraw any lot, to divide or combine lots, and — in the case of a dispute — to reopen the bidding or to determine the dispute themselves.

Catalogue descriptions are statements of opinion, not of fact. An attribution is given at the strength the department believes the evidence bears. "By" means the department believes the work to be by that hand. "Attributed to" means probably, in whole or in part. "Circle of" means by an unidentified hand close to the artist. "After" means a copy of a known work, of any date. "Bears a signature" means the department does not believe the signature is by the hand named.

Dimensions, weights and dates are approximate. Illustrations are a guide to identification only; colour reproduction is not exact and a plate is not a substitute for examining the lot.

Every lot is sold as is, with all faults and imperfections. The lots offered are, with few exceptions, of some age, and wear, restoration and repair are to be expected. The absence of a reference to a defect in the catalogue or a condition report does not imply that the lot is free from it.

A condition report is given as a courtesy. It is an opinion honestly held by the person who wrote it and it is not a warranty. It does not amount to a full description and it is not a substitute for examining the lot yourself, or having it examined by an adviser of your own.

A prospective buyer who cannot attend the viewing is strongly encouraged to request a report and to ask the department direct questions. The department will answer them.

Estimates are published as a guide and are the department's opinion of the range within which a lot may sell. They are prepared well in advance of the sale and may be revised. They do not include the buyer's premium or any tax, and they are not a guarantee of a price.

Unless a lot is marked • as offered without reserve, every lot is subject to a reserve: a confidential minimum price, agreed with the seller, below which the lot will not be sold. A reserve may never exceed the low estimate.

The auctioneer may open the bidding on a lot below the reserve and may bid on behalf of the seller up to but not including the reserve, by placing consecutive or responsive bids. The auctioneer will not place a bid on behalf of the seller at or above the reserve, and will not take a bid from the seller themselves.

The house publishes whether a reserve has been met on an open lot. It does not publish what the reserve is, and it will not be told to a bidder who asks.

Bidding advances by the increments published in the increment table. The increment is determined by the level of the current bid, and the next admissible bid is the current bid plus that increment, rounded up onto the ladder. The auctioneer may vary the increment at their discretion but may not accept a bid below the next admissible rung.

An absentee bid that does not fall on a rung is reduced by the clerk to the rung below it. Where two absentee bids are equal, the one received first prevails.

In a timed online sale each lot closes at the time printed against it. A bid placed inside the final 3 minutes of a lot extends the close of that lot by 3 minutes from the moment the bid is made, and does so again for every subsequent bid inside the window. Only the lot bid on is extended.

The house is not liable for a failure of a bidder's internet connection, device or electricity supply, or for any interruption of the online bidding platform. A bidder who is concerned about connectivity should leave an absentee bid or book a telephone line.

The buyer pays the hammer price together with a buyer's premium of 27 per cent of the hammer price up to and including $1,000,000, 21 per cent of the portion above $1,000,000 up to and including $6,000,000, and 15 per cent of any portion above $6,000,000. Lots in the rare books and manuscripts department carry a first-tier rate of 25 per cent, and the reduced rate carries through the whole scale.

New York State and local sales tax at a combined 8.875 per cent is charged on the hammer price and the premium together where it applies. It may not apply where the property is shipped out of state by the house, or where the buyer holds a valid resale certificate lodged with the house before the invoice is raised.

Artist's resale right, import duty, shipping, packing and insurance, where they apply, are additional and are set out on the invoice.

Payment is due within seven days of the sale, in United States dollars, by wire transfer or by the other methods stated on the invoice. Title in a lot does not pass until the house has received cleared funds in full, whatever the arrangements for collection.

Risk in a lot passes to the buyer on the earlier of collection and thirty days after the sale. Property must be collected within thirty days; after that, storage and handling charges accrue and the house may remove the property to a warehouse at the buyer's expense.

If within five years of the sale a buyer satisfies the house that a lot is a deliberate forgery — that is, an imitation created with intent to deceive as to authorship, origin, date, age, period or provenance, which is not so described in the catalogue and which at the date of the sale had a value materially less than it would have had if it were as described — the house will rescind the sale and refund the purchase price.

The guarantee is given to the original buyer only, is not transferable, and requires the lot to be returned in the condition in which it was sold, free of any claim by a third party. It does not apply where the catalogue description accorded with the generally accepted opinion of scholars at the date of the sale, or where the only way to establish that the lot is a forgery would have been by a process not generally available at that date, or one that was unreasonably expensive or impractical, or likely to have damaged the lot.

It is the buyer's responsibility to obtain any export or import licence required, and to satisfy any customs or cultural-property requirement, before removing a lot from the United States. The house will assist and will say what it knows, but the refusal or delay of a licence does not release a buyer from the obligation to pay.

Lots marked ※ may require an export licence. Lots containing material from endangered species — ivory, tortoiseshell, certain hardwoods and corals — may not be exportable at all, and may not be sellable across state lines. The department will say so before the sale rather than after it.

The house may withdraw a lot at any time before it is knocked down, and will do so if a question arises over title, attribution, condition or documentation that it cannot resolve before the sale. Bids placed on a withdrawn lot are cancelled and no bidder is under any obligation. A withdrawn lot remains printed in the catalogue and in the online record.