Furniture documentation

The best time to document a piece is before anything happens to it

Insurance claims, estates, sales, theft reports — every one of them asks the same question. What did you have, before?

A photo taken after the flood is worth very little. A dated record from three years earlier is worth a great deal. In Florida that is not hypothetical: hurricanes, flooding, humidity, and movers all arrive eventually.

Register your piece

$99

per piece

The cheapest insurance you'll ever buy for a piece you can't replace.

Photos on your phone are not a record. Phones die, houses flood, and an adjuster looking at a water-damaged sideboard has no way to know what it looked like in March.

Your photos, stored somewhere that is not your phone
What the piece is — type, approximate period, likely wood and style
A QR code you attach to the piece, so the record travels with the furniture
Timestamped and permanent
Transfers with the piece if you sell it or pass it down

Documented provenance

$99

per piece

Most furniture arrives with its story missing. We go find it.

Someone who works on these pieces daily examines yours — the marks underneath, the way the drawers are joined, the wood beneath the finish. We trace the ownership as far back as it goes and write down what we find, including what we could not confirm.

Ownership lineage, traced as far as it goes
Maker's marks, labels, and joinery — and what they indicate
Materials and construction, identified
Condition documented as found, honestly
A comp-backed opinion of value, as-is and restored

Start a documented record

Insurance damage assessment

Priced per assessment

after we see the damage

Adjusters depreciate furniture toward nothing, because nobody gives them a reason not to.

When a piece is damaged, the question is not what it is worth used. It is what it costs to make it right — or to replace what cannot be repaired. We document the damage, the construction, and the comparable market, in the format a claim file expects.

Damage documented in detail, with photographs
What can be repaired, what cannot, and why
Repair or replacement cost, itemized
Comparable market evidence
Delivered in a format built for a claim file

Talk to us about a claim

What you actually receive

A written account of your piece — what it is, what it is made of, what condition it is in, and whatever we can establish about where it came from. It is tied to the piece itself by a QR code, so whoever holds the furniture can reach the record.

Furniture with a documented history is worth more than furniture without one, because a buyer no longer has to take anyone's word for it. The same is true of an adjuster, an executor, or an heir.

What this is, and what it isn't

A provenance record documents what we found and what we think it means. It is a documented opinion, not a certified appraisal — and we are an interested party, because we also restore furniture.

If you need a certified appraisal for insurance or legal purposes, tell us and we will point you toward an independent credentialed appraiser. We would rather send you to the right person than sell you the wrong thing.

We do not guarantee what an insurer will pay. What we can do is make sure the decision is made with good information rather than a guess.

Workshop and record

Two names, one piece of furniture.

Alberto's Furniture Refinishing is the workshop. It is where the stripping, the repair and the finishing happen, by hand, and where you book the work.

Provenance Project is the record. It is our second site, and it holds the documented history of a piece — photographs, what the piece is, the condition it was in, and what we did to it. The record travels with the furniture, so the next owner, an heir, or an adjuster does not have to take anyone's word for it.

You never have to go looking for it. Ask for an estimate right here, and if the piece comes into the shop its record is built as the work happens — same workshop, same people, kept on provenanceproject.app so it outlives any one invoice.