What we read

One body authenticates, it issues a torn banknote as its certificate, and it will not touch street work.

The authentication board dissolved in 2012, so the catalogue raisonné and provenance now carry the whole argument.

An estate that controls the name, catalogues that record the prints, and a ceramics market with its own stamps.

The most polluted print market in modern art, because the artist signed blank paper by the tens of thousands.

A committee that still issues opinions, and a print market divided by whether the artist touched the stone.

A market with the same original-versus-reproduction split, and an estate that still speaks.

An artist whose work imitates dot printing, which makes the usual loupe test read backwards.

A market of vinyl multiples with no central authenticator, where the box and the seam do the work.

The studio issues its own certificates, which makes this one of the more tractable contemporary markets.

A market where almost everything is genuine and almost nothing is worth what was paid for it.

The most counterfeited maison in the world, and the one where the canvas itself gives the answer.

Where the quilting, the lock and the serial system have to agree with each other and with the year.

Hand saddle-stitched, blind-stamped and made one at a time — which is exactly what a factory cannot copy.

Where the serial tag's two rows and the GG pattern's spacing do most of the work.

Nylon, a triangle plate and a logo whose R has a particular leg — small things, sharply defined.

Cannage quilting, hanging charms and a date code with its own grammar.

Two eras, two logos and a serial format that tells you which one you are holding.

A maison with almost no logo, which puts the entire read on the weave.

The double-F pattern has a right way up, and half the fakes get it wrong.

The YSL cassandre has exact proportions, and a fake almost never gets all three letters right.

The one house where vintage is worth more than current, and the creed patch tells you which you have.