The Plate MarkRembrandt · Bartsch 20

Claims and evidence

The whole record, and where it is weakest

18 active claims, 8 pieces of evidence, and an honest account of how thin the foundation currently is. This page exists so that nobody has to take the object record on trust.

Audit

Computed from the data, not written by hand. It cannot flatter the record.

Claims by confidence

Confirmed
8
Strongly supported
4
Probable
3
Possible
1
Disputed
0
Rejected
0
Unknown
2

Source coverage

100%

18 of 18 active claims cite at least one piece of evidence. The build refuses to compile a claim whose confidence exceeds the tier of its strongest source.

Every active claim

In record order, each with its evidence, its confidence and what would change it.

Artist

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606–1669)

Strongly supported

The composition is securely Rembrandt's: the catalogue raisonné entry for no. 170 is in hand. What that does not settle is who did the work visible in this particular impression — see the state claim below, where the catalogue is explicit that the third state is not Rembrandt's work.

What would change thisAn examination by a specialist in Old Master prints concluding that the sheet is a later restrike from Rembrandt's plate, a reproduction after the composition, or a copy by another hand. Any of these would keep the composition and change the object.

CL-ARTISTStated by Bonhams, as cataloguer, citing New Hollstein 170Added 2026-08-12Verified 2026-08-12

Title

Self-Portrait in a Velvet Cap with Plume

Confirmed

The title used by the catalogue raisonné, and by the Rijksmuseum, the Met, the National Gallery of Art and the Art Institute. The census still records each institution's own wording verbatim.

  • 3Institutional recordNew Hollstein Dutch & Flemish, Rembrandt, no. 170, pp. 31–32 and plates 84–87 · Erik Hinterding and Jaco Rutgers · 2013on request

CL-TITLEStated by New Hollstein 170Added 2026-08-12Verified 2026-08-12

Date of the plate

1638

Confirmed

New Hollstein dates the plate 1638 and records it signed and dated in the plate, upper left: Rembrandt f 1638. This is the date Rembrandt worked the copper. It is not the date this sheet was printed, and the two are now known to be far apart.

  • 3Institutional recordNew Hollstein Dutch & Flemish, Rembrandt, no. 170, pp. 31–32 and plates 84–87 · Erik Hinterding and Jaco Rutgers · 2013on request

CL-DATEStated by New Hollstein 170Added 2026-08-12Verified 2026-08-12

Date of printing of this sheet

Unknown. Later than Rembrandt's lifetime only if the state III attribution holds

Unknown

No date is asserted. The catalogue establishes that the work visible in state III is not Rembrandt's, so an impression in that state was pulled after the plate had been reworked — but it does not establish that this sheet is in state III, and a conditional does not become a date. The copper plate's own descent, which is documented, bounds where a later impression could have been printed; that is on the provenance timeline.

What would change thisA specialist's state determination. If state II, the sheet is from the plate as Rembrandt left it. If state III, it is a later pull from a reworked plate.

CL-PRINTING-DATEAdded 2026-08-12Verified 2026-08-12

Catalogue reference (Bartsch)

Bartsch 20

Confirmed

Confirmed against the catalogue's own concordance, which gives B. 20 alongside G. 25, M. 134, H. 156, Mz. 22, BB. 38-B and W-B. 20.

CL-CATREF-BARTSCHAdded 2026-08-12Verified 2026-08-12

Catalogue reference (New Hollstein)

New Hollstein 170

Confirmed

Verified against the catalogue entry itself, which the project now holds in photographic form.

CL-CATREF-NHAdded 2026-08-12Verified 2026-08-12

Medium

Drypoint etching, on laid paper

Strongly supported

New Hollstein calls the plate an etching; the auction cataloguer calls this sheet a drypoint etching; the Rijksmuseum records its impressions as etching and drypoint. All three can be true of the same plate. Whether burr survives in this particular impression is untested, and in a late state it is unlikely.

What would change thisExamination under magnification of this impression, to establish whether any drypoint burr survives in it — which is a different question from whether the plate carries drypoint work.

CL-MEDIUMStated by New Hollstein 170; Bonhams, as cataloguerAdded 2026-08-12Verified 2026-08-12

Support

Laid paper

Strongly supported

Recorded as laid paper by both the catalogue and the auction cataloguer. Transmitted light would confirm it directly and would also give chain-line spacing, which no source supplies.

What would change thisTransmitted-light examination showing chain and laid lines, which would confirm laid paper and give measurable chain-line spacing.

CL-SUPPORTAdded 2026-08-12Verified 2026-08-12

Watermark

Not examined; the catalogue records no watermarks for this state

Unknown

New Hollstein lists watermark editions for states I and II — Strasbourg lily, Arms of Bristol, Arms of Ravensburg, Basel crosier, Basilisk, Foolscap and variants — and lists none at all for states III and IV. So even a clear watermark here would have nothing in the catalogue to be matched against, and would be new information rather than a confirmation.

  • 1Physical observationNo conservator examination has taken place · 2026-08-12
  • 3Institutional recordNew Hollstein Dutch & Flemish, Rembrandt, no. 170, pp. 31–32 and plates 84–87 · Erik Hinterding and Jaco Rutgers · 2013on request

What would change thisTransmitted-light imaging of the sheet.

CL-WATERMARKAdded 2026-08-12Verified 2026-08-12

State

Catalogued by the auction house as New Hollstein 170, state III of IV; state II not excluded

Possible

The cataloguer's determination reads: “New Hollstein 170, state III (of IV, without signature, diagonal scratch in plate at upper left only slightly visible).” Two grounds are given and one of them does not discriminate: the catalogue's reproduction of state II does not show the signature clearly either, so an absent signature narrows the sheet to state II or III and no further. What remains is the scratch and the cataloguer's reading of the line-work, neither of which anyone else has checked. State II is the most numerous state of this plate and the only one White & Boon recognised; it has not been excluded. The record carries the house's determination, attributed to the house, at the confidence a single unreviewed reading supports.

What would change thisA specialist in Old Master prints examining the sheet against the catalogue's diagnostic features for states II and III — the cross-hatching at the base of the feather and along the brim of the cap, the curved lines on the forehead carried over the brim, the horizontal shading on the right ear.

CL-STATEStated by Bonhams, as cataloguer, citing New Hollstein 170Added 2026-08-12Verified 2026-08-12

Dimensions

Sheet approximately 137 × 104 mm; plate 134 × 103 mm

Probable

The apparent impossibility in the first version of this record — a trimmed sheet larger than the plate — was an artefact of comparing two different measurements. New Hollstein gives the plate as 13.4 × 10.3 cm. The auction cataloguer measured the sheet, at 137 × 104 mm. A sheet a few millimetres larger than the plate, trimmed hard on one edge and retaining a margin on the others, is exactly what the photographs show.

What would change thisRemeasurement under a conservation protocol, recording plate mark and sheet separately and noting which edges retain a plate mark.

CL-DIMENSIONSAdded 2026-08-12Verified 2026-08-12

Condition summary

Trimmed at the left margin; wrinkling and dampstaining at lower left, extending partly into the image; unmounted at purchase

Strongly supported

The catalogue's wording, verbatim: “Left margin roughly trimmed, some wrinkling, dampstaining to lower left corner, including part of image. Unmounted.” The photographs corroborate all four observations and add a diagonal tideline across the lower half of the sheet, visible from the verso. It remains a sale description rather than a conservator's report, and it will be superseded by one.

What would change thisA condition report by a paper conservator, which would replace this summary field by field and add severity, extent and stability assessments this record cannot make.

CL-CONDITION-SUMMARYStated by Bonhams, as cataloguerAdded 2026-08-12Verified 2026-08-12

Collector marks and inscriptions

No collector's mark, stamp or inscription visible on either side

Probable

The verso has now been seen. It is blank apart from a diagonal tideline and general handling marks — no stamp, no pencil annotation, no dealer's code, no mount or hinge remnant. That is a genuine negative finding and it closes the most likely route into the sheet's earlier ownership.

  • 5Auction catalogueCondition-report photographs of the sheet, recto and verso, supplied by the auction house · Bonhams · 2023-05-03on request

What would change thisExamination under ultraviolet or raking light, which can reveal a faded stamp or an erased inscription that a hand-held photograph will not show.

CL-MARKSAdded 2026-08-12Verified 2026-08-12

Acquisition

Bonhams, Fine Books and Manuscripts, sale 28358, lot 182, New York, 24 April – 4 May 2023

Confirmed

Transcribed from the payment receipt and confirmed against the published lot page. The sale was online only; the department's specialists were Ian Ehling, Darren Sutherland and Tim Tezer. The consignor is not named in the catalogue and is not known to the project.

CL-ACQUISITIONStated by OwnerAdded 2026-08-12Verified 2026-08-12

Current custody

Private collection, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Confirmed

Stated at city level by policy. Storage location, address, security arrangements and insurance values are not published and are not held in this database. See the security and privacy policy.

  • 2Primary documentBonhams payment receipt, 17 May 2023, transaction 1246701, sale 28358 lot 182 · Bonhams & Butterfields Auctioneers Corp. · 2023-05-17on request

CL-CUSTODYStated by OwnerAdded 2026-08-12Verified 2026-08-12

Ownership before 2023

Private collection, Germany, consigned through a European antiquarian dealer; nothing documented before that

Probable

The auction house's specialist named the consignment route in correspondence but declined to identify the collection. How long the sheet was in Germany, and where it was before, remain unknown. The verso carries no collector's mark to work back from.

  • 6Specialist opinionCorrespondence with Darren Sutherland, Senior Specialist, Fine Books and Manuscripts, Bonhams, 23 May 2023 · Darren Sutherland, Bonhams · 2023-05-23on request

What would change thisThe house or the dealer agreeing to name the collection, or a mark or document that places the sheet earlier.

CL-EARLIER-PROVENANCEStated by Darren Sutherland, Senior Specialist, BonhamsAdded 2026-08-12Verified 2026-08-12

Metadata rights

CC0 1.0 Universal — no rights reserved over the descriptive metadata

Confirmed

Metadata is released without restriction so that it can be reused, aggregated and corrected by anyone. The written text of the site is CC BY 4.0.

CL-RIGHTS-METADATAStated by ProjectAdded 2026-08-12Verified 2026-08-12

Image rights

No image of this impression is published

Confirmed

The underlying work is in the public domain. Photographs of this sheet do exist — the auction house made two for a condition report in 2023 and the project holds them — but their copyright is the house's, not the owner's, and it has not been established. They are therefore not published, and can be shown to a scholar or institution on request. No documentary imaging to a photographic standard has been made.

What would change thisWritten confirmation from the auction house that its condition photographs may be published with credit, or documentary imaging of the sheet.

CL-RIGHTS-IMAGESStated by ProjectAdded 2026-08-12Verified 2026-08-12

Every piece of evidence

Grouped by tier. Tier is a property of the source and is independent of whether the project likes what the source says.
1Physical observationtier 1 of 8 · Physical observation

  • No conservator examination has taken place

    EV-NO-CONSERVATOR

    2026-08-12

    Recorded as an explicit negative so that the absence is visible rather than inferred from silence. No paper conservator has examined the sheet, and no technical imaging — transmitted light, raking light, ultraviolet, magnification — has been carried out. The auction house's condition photographs do not substitute for any of it.

    Cited by: Date of printing of this sheet, Watermark

2Primary documenttier 2 of 8 · Primary document

  • Bonhams payment receipt, 17 May 2023, transaction 1246701, sale 28358 lot 182

    EV-ACQ-INVOICE

    Bonhams & Butterfields Auctioneers Corp. · 2023-05-17available on request

    The receipt carries the buyer's name, address, contact details, client and payment numbers, and the sum paid. None of that is published or held in this database. The sale number, lot number and date have been transcribed from it into the record; a copy redacted to those fields can be supplied to a scholar or institution.

    Transcribed 12 August 2026. It fixes the acquisition to a named sale and lot, which is what closed the search recorded under RQ-08.

    Cited by: Artist, Acquisition, Current custody

  • Rights and licensing policy of this project

    EV-PROJECT-POLICY

    The Plate Mark · 2026-08-12

    The project's own published statement of the terms it releases its material under. It is primary evidence for claims about licensing and for nothing else.

    Cited by: Metadata rights, Image rights

3Institutional recordtier 3 of 8 · Institutional record

  • New Hollstein Dutch & Flemish, Rembrandt, no. 170, pp. 31–32 and plates 84–87

    EV-NH-170

    Erik Hinterding and Jaco Rutgers · 2013available on request

    The project holds photographs of the catalogue entry and its plates, supplied with the auction house's condition report. The volumes themselves are not held; a scholar wanting the entry should consult the published catalogue.

    The standard catalogue entry for this plate, and the source this record spent its first day working without. It supplies the four state descriptions in the catalogue's own words, the impressions listed in each state, the watermark editions, the copperplate's provenance, and reproductions of each state — which is how the state III attribution for this sheet becomes checkable rather than merely asserted.

    Cited by: Artist, Title, Date of the plate, Date of printing of this sheet, Catalogue reference (Bartsch), Catalogue reference (New Hollstein), Medium, Support, Watermark, State, Dimensions

5Auction cataloguetier 5 of 8 · Auction catalogue

  • Bonhams, Fine Books and Manuscripts, sale 28358, lot 182, New York, 24 April – 4 May 2023

    EV-LOT-182

    Bonhams & Butterfields Auctioneers Corp. · 2023-05

    The catalogue entry the sheet was sold under, and the source of every phrase in the owner's working record. It is a cataloguer's determination made under time pressure rather than a scholarly one, and it is weighted accordingly — but it is specific, it names its diagnostic features, and it can now be checked against the catalogue it cites. Note that the page is publicly reachable at the URL above; the house's own site search does not return it, which is why an earlier search of this archive recorded a false negative.

    Cited by: Artist, Date of printing of this sheet, Catalogue reference (Bartsch), Catalogue reference (New Hollstein), Medium, Support, State, Dimensions, Condition summary, Acquisition

  • Condition-report photographs of the sheet, recto and verso, supplied by the auction house

    EV-CONDITION-PHOTOS

    Bonhams · 2023-05-03available on request

    Two photographs of the sheet, recto and verso, made by the auction house for a pre-sale condition request. They are the only images of this impression that exist. Their copyright position has not been established with the house, so they are not published here; they can be shown to a scholar or institution on request.

    These are not a conservator's documentation: they are hand-held photographs on a cloth ground, without a scale, a colour target or controlled lighting. They are nevertheless the first direct visual evidence of the sheet the project has held, and they settle several questions the record had open — most usefully that the verso carries no visible collector's mark or inscription.

    Cited by: State, Condition summary, Collector marks and inscriptions, Image rights

6Specialist opiniontier 6 of 8 · Specialist opinion

  • Correspondence with Darren Sutherland, Senior Specialist, Fine Books and Manuscripts, Bonhams, 23 May 2023

    EV-BONHAMS-EMAIL

    Darren Sutherland, Bonhams · 2023-05-23available on request

    Held by the owner. The substantive content — the consignment route and the catalogue description — is transcribed into this record.

    The department specialist's own account of where the sheet came from, which the printed catalogue entry does not give. He also confirms what was supplied with the lot: the invoice, condition-report images, the catalogue description with references, and scans of the relevant New Hollstein pages. No certificate of authenticity and no independent expert opinion were provided, and none was claimed.

    Cited by: Ownership before 2023

8Unreviewed submissiontier 8 of 8 · Unreviewed submission

  • Owner's working object record, assembled 2026

    EV-WORKING-RECORD

    Owner / steward · 2026-08

    A compilation by the owner. It now has a traceable parentage: every substantive phrase in it is a condensation of the auction catalogue entry, EV-LOT-182. Its statements were held at low confidence on the first day of this record because they could not be checked; with the catalogue entry in hand they can be, and most of them hold.

    Cited by: nothing yet

Superseded claims

Nothing is deleted from this record. When a claim is replaced it is deprecated and kept, so the history of the mistake survives alongside the correction.

None yet — the record is one day old. When the first correction lands it will appear here, and the claim it replaced will stay readable. The changelog already records two discrepancies found on the first day.

The confidence scale

How confidence is recorded

Confirmed
Established by direct primary evidence that has been examined, with no competing evidence outstanding.
Strongly supported
Supported by more than one independent source of good quality; no source contradicts it.
Probable
Supported by a single good source, or by convergent weaker sources; a competing reading is possible but not currently evidenced.
Possible
Consistent with the available evidence but not demonstrated. Held as a working hypothesis.
Disputed
Competing claims are supported by sources of comparable weight, and the conflict is unresolved.
Rejected
Evidence has been examined and the claim does not hold. Retained so the dead end is not repeated.
Unknown
Not yet investigated, or investigated without result.

Confidence describes the quality of the evidence and nothing else. It is not a measure of how much the project would like a claim to be true, and it cannot be raised without adding a source — the build refuses a claim that outranks the evidence under it.