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“Can you believe it?” Madeline snapped, striding over to me and standing there, arms crossed, absolutely seething. “Just because they’re bigger does not mean they’re better.”
“Not at all,” I agreed.
She smiled at me. “Wyn is going to need you to enter all the letters up for auction because—listen to this—she didn’t even start.”
“But it’s next Thursday,” I said, turning to Wynton.
He began rubbing his temples. “At least it’s all written down. The problem is, only you and Oliver can read her chicken scratch.”
Oliver Pryce was the guy who went to people’s homes and determined whether what they were looking at was real or a fake. He wasn’t a cataloger like me, Terri, or Marc, he was an expert in authentication and could have been a principal at a company, but preferred not to be the person in charge. He liked flying around and meeting people instead. He’d even been on Antiques Roadshow once or twice. Also, the man was a student of dead languages, which helped him read Vanessa’s handwriting. I had gotten used to seeing it, as she was the one who’d first trained me. We hadn’t really gotten along; she never had anything kind to say about anyone, and with people like that, you always knew they were talking about you behind your back as well. She also hated Madeline most of all, and had said that she didn’t trust her to simply not show up one day. Funny that she’d turned out to be the person who bailed.
I thought for a moment. “Isn’t Oliver in Hartford looking at the box of Revolutionary War correspondence a man found in his attic?”
“Yes.” Wynton looked up at me, his hands falling away from his head. “So that leaves you entering all those descriptions onto the website and—”
“Pardon me, sir, but no. She’s been required to type up all her notes ever since she got into that huge fight with the researchers.”
Donna, Paul, and Rohan, who I really liked collectively, sharing a brain, and apart, had basically gone on strike and told Mr. Calvert that under no circumstances was she allowed to handwrite even a Post-it note going forward.
Wynton looked both stunned and excited. “Are you serious?”
One did wonder how, in our very small company, he had missed that important announcement. “Yessir.”
“That’s—who can do—”
“I would suggest Bing here.” I turned to the newest guy in our company. “He’s great with computers, but he might need someone to look at it before he posts, at least with the first entries until he gets the hang of it.”
“Oh, that’s great.” Wynton sounded excited. “Now I don’t have to take anyone off a project.” I smiled at him, and he turned to Bing. “I need you upstairs in the auction offices in fifteen minutes. I have to go update Rowan, and I need to speak to the printers about the program right now.”
Maddie gave me a big smile, then left with a clearly relieved and excited Wynton.
Bing looked like a deer in the headlights.
“What? You won’t be bored.”
“I have no idea how to use the software here or—”
“Oh, he’s going to show you, and it’s easy. There are pictures, and you’re entering information under each one.”
“Like what?”
“Descriptions.”
“For example?”
“I don’t know, things like ‘light foxing throughout,’ or ‘brown spots,’ or ‘loss costing some text,’ which means there’s a tear or a hole that takes a word out. Or you’ll see ‘additional folds,’ meaning there are more than the usual number of folds used to get the piece into an envelope. It’s not a big deal, considering everything we do is paper based. So maps and documents, books, things like that. You’re not describing the Hope Diamond, for heaven’s sake.”
“The what?”
“Don’t worry about that. It’s all going to be stuff like ‘marginal wear,’ ‘ragged edges,’ or ‘damp staining,’ which means the item was left in humid conditions and is stained in some areas as a result. You might see ‘spindle holes,’ which means multiple holes at the left margin from removing the document from a string-bound book.”
“What if I mess up?”
“You won’t mess up. You’re inputting, that’s all. Be careful, be methodical, and keep in mind that collectors want pieces in as good condition as possible, and if condition is truly an issue, it’ll kill the price.”
“If this Vanessa thought some of this stuff was in really bad shape, but we still want people to come to the auction, what happens then?”
“Then we say, ‘we invite bidders to see this piece in person.’ Or sometimes, ‘offered as is due to condition. Please examine photographs carefully.’”
