Catalogue your collection day-by-day as you go !

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi All

( Re -post  /  1st attempt   failed)

This may seem like a  trivial  piece  of  advice, but it's  one  so  simple and  obvious  that  I even  still  forget it  as  I collect.

CATALOGUE  YOUR  COLLECTION  DAY-BY-DAY  AS  YOU  GO  !

When  I first  started   serious  collecting  about  5 years  ago  I  had  only   2  dozen bottles, and I could remember vividly the    date , place and price  I paid  for  every one  of them.   But then  suddenly somehow  my collection doubled  in about  6 months  and  then  I was  not  so clear  about  dates, places and    prices.   By the  time  I  got  to  75  bottles the  whole  thing  was   totally   out  of  control   .  So JUST  IN TIME  I    very  simply   photographed  every bottle   on  a  sheet  of   sheet of  paper  stating  all I could remember  about   how/ when/ when  I bought  it and   the  price . Not very   tidy  or  attractive   ( see  example  attached)   but  very   functional .

Nowadays  as  my collection    passes  the   250 mark  I  find it's an  essential  discipline  , but  still  I  often  forget to  catalogue the   very    day I buy a new  bottle , with the  result that  I  often  get  a couple  of  months  out  of   synch. , and then  have to  spend     twice as long to  sort out the mess    than if  I had  done  the cataloguing   immediately .

When I retire, I will  go back  to every  catalogue  page,  type  it out  nicely,   and sign it   as  provenance  in case  the  bottle  is ever  auctioned  by  my family after  I die.  That's the least I can do  to give  every bottle a  good  send-off   on earth   when  I go to  join  J.H  Leung  and  all the  other  Great  Collectors  -   and  artists  -  in the   sky !

Cheers  Peter

PS  : I  attach these particular   2   pages   (  A & B sides  of a  " Spider"  bottle)   from my catalogue     file   as   a  typical example  of a  BAD  catalogue  page  made  a  few months  after   the  purchase   when  I was already  vague  as to the  exact  details . Because  of my careleness   it  took me  over  2  years  to  track  down  the  artist  whom I  dubbed  "Spiderman" , who  turned  out to be  Zhang Limin, whom  I   now regard  as  one of the most  talented  up-coming  Hengshui  artists  in the  Da  Yong  Studio.

[George]

I stated using little 3 x 5 cards.

I read a suggestion from within Lilla Perry's book about keeping the bottle number in the left, or right hand upper corner. The classification or type of bottle could be at the top annd center of the card, jade, procelain, glass, tourmaline, inside painted, whatever will make it easy to find the bottle in the card catalogue.  Beneath could be the desctiption of the bottle itself, its color, height, shape, and its decoration. Could describe the material of the stopper and the collar if there is one. With inside painted bottles, record the artists name. Then perhaps at the base of the card could be the name of source of the purchase and amount paid.

Mine are not as neat.. Here is what my cards look like compared to the above.

This is temporary as my choice of record keeping. Plan to take pics, print out the pics and attach similar details about the bottle to that picture. 

[rpfstoneman]

Subject: Looking for an electronic format to catalog each bottle as it’s own page with description, provenance, purchase info., measurements, etc., with picture placement.   

I’ve had the chance to navigating through the forum a bit more and ran across this subject. Thank you Peter and George for sharing your bottle cataloging methods.  I’ve been entering each of my bottles into an Excel spreadsheet for years, but it is not very user friendly.  I wish to find and/or develop an electronic page cataloging format for each bottle in a similar method as Peter’s written example.  At one time there was software being promoted for cataloging antique collections for inventory and insurance purposes.  Has anyone found or developed a good electronic page format for cataloging each item in a collection?  If so please advice.  Am looking to find and use a preexisting format if available, if not will likely try to create a Microsoft Word form over the next month or so.  Appreciated any input on computer formats that are working for you folks.

Charll

[George]

I really have not properly catalogued my small collection with photos, and individual information on paper yet.. I do plan of doing that so that the person who will get my bottles when I pass will have all the info..

I did put together a little jonline journal that will be updating as I add more bottles though..

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi  Charll

No such   software system  (  as  far as  I know )

Just   write   down  all   ( I mean  ALL )    you  know  about the  bottle  on a  piece  of  paper , then  lay  the  bottle  on the  paper  ( preferably   with a    small   6 inch   ruler  side-by-side  to   show the   bottle   size)  and   take  a  digital  pic  ( repeat  with  side  B)

That's a  perfect  way and  insurance  companies  accept  it BECAUSE  IT  SHOWS  SERIOUS  CATALOGUING   DUE   DILIGENCE .  There's nothing  better than the   written-word-at-the-time  ( just  like  policeman's  notebook  written  at-the-time)

Simple,  easy  and   fool-proof.  Then print  out a  hard  copy and  file  in case  your  laptop  crashes   !

But  do  it   within  24  hours  of  purchase !

Cheers  Peter

[Pat - 查尚杰]

I think many of us are amiss or deficient in this area. me certainly, beyond doubt.  I am going to shortcut it by creating a web site next year, linked to a private area that will have the info only relevant to me.   I think that IF we do not follow Peter's method, we might as well put our stuff online and kill several birds with one stone, so to speak...

I also have been looking for collection-specific website software and was not succesful, I might add...

[George]

I also have been looking for collection-specific website software and was not succesful, I might add...

Maybe scroll through some of these.. Looks like some neat collecters type software programs..

Now you guys have me looking at them ! 
 

[George]

Actually, after looking a bit more... Here are some Google search results for some freebies..

Better yet...

Here are some free bottle collecting softwares

[Peter Bentley 彭达理]

Hi  Pat,

My present   doc   system  is  as I showed  before

All  are   hand-written  and  not  very well  photographed ( many  very  badly  photographed  ,  but AT  LEAST   photographed   for  posterity  )  

But I recently  created a   word-doc   with  an  accurate   cm    embedded  scale  when  printed  out   as  A4  ( see  attached - hope  I attached the  correct  version)

It's   my  intention to    re-categorise  all  my bottles  using this   format  in 2012(13)    and  type-written   for  neatness

But  note  :  I have  been advised  by  a  professional  photographer  that   taking  a  pic    with    digital  camera  of  a  bottle  on a  white  background   will  ALWAYS   lead  to  a  grey-ish  colour  overall  pic. There's no  way to  get the  background  pure   white  and the  bottle  in  full  color

If  anyone  has  any  input  re   photo- techniques  of  bottles  laid  flat  on a  sheet  of  A4 paper   please   add to this  string

Cheers  Peter