Curiosities from the markets of Europe
Objects that start conversations.
Shop the collectionEvery object begins its life in a forgotten room.
We don’t sell antiques. We sell the unfinished stories they carry.
A beautiful object, yes — but really the lives that touched it, the rooms it outlived, and the ending nobody has written yet. You don’t buy a thing here; you inherit a mystery.
Look closer
A dim attic, a lifetime of forgotten things. Move your light across it — and the objects worth keeping begin to glow.
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Every object here kept a story — unforgettable, and unfinished.
Someone lived beside it, then let it go — and left the last page blank on purpose. It has waited a long time for a hand like yours.
Will you be the one to finish it?
Continue a story →The Collection
One of each, ever. When a story finds its keeper it vanishes for good — the piece you are holding will never surface in another home. New arrivals appear every second Friday, and never return.
As the story goes, this massive wall clock of dark walnut and gilded brass has passed through four eras and crossed the borders of three nations — its fate fully documented in archival registers, police reports and auction ledgers across Germany, France and Switzerland.
A clock 120 centimetres tall, with a two-week movement and a calendar complication, is built in the workshop of court master Johann Neumann on commission from the baronial house of von Hohenlohe. Struck into the brass plate of the movement are the maker’s mark, the date and a serial number: “J. Neumann, München, 1862 — No. 7.” The clock is installed in the library of the family castle near Rottenburg.
After the outbreak of the First World War and the death of the young baron at the Battle of the Marne in September 1914, the castle falls into neglect. In 1918, during the November Revolution, part of the estate is sold at auction to settle its debts. In the ledger of the Weinmüller auction house in Munich, dated 12 December 1919, clock No. 7 is recorded as bought by a Lyon silk manufacturer, Henri Dupont, for 4,200 gold marks.
During the Second World War, after German troops occupy the south of France in November 1942, the Dupont mansion is requisitioned for the local headquarters of the occupation administration. The clock is left hanging in the drawing room. In August 1944, as Wehrmacht units retreat from Lyon, it is taken down and carried off among the headquarters’ effects.
The clock resurfaces in the Swiss court registry. Working through the International Commission for the Restitution of Works of Art, the son of the late Henri Dupont files a claim for the return of unlawfully removed property. The clock is found in the storeroom of a Basel antiquarian, having passed through a chain of dealers. In April 1955, by decision of the Cantonal Court of Zurich, it is formally returned to the Dupont family.
After the death of the manufacturer’s last direct heir, the Dupont collection of interior clocks goes to auction in Geneva at the house of Habsburg, Feldman. Per the catalogue of 15 May 1988 (lot No. 89), the clock — with its original case, key and the 1955 act of restitution — is bought by a private connoisseur of nineteenth-century mechanics for 68,000 Swiss francs.
Included with every object
Every piece arrives in a wax-sealed envelope with a printed Story Passport folded inside — the object’s papers, its half-buried history, and your ready answer to the question every guest eventually asks: “…where on earth did you find that?”
When and where it was made — and by whose hand.
Every owner, border and era the piece has passed through.
The archival ledgers, registries and records that prove it.
The maker's stamps, the metals, and the serial number.
For someone
Every artifact makes a rare gift — and it can be made personal. Add a hand-written message on the card, choose festive wrapping, and set the language of its Story Passport and papers: English, German, Dutch or French. We prepare each piece to arrive ready to be given, not merely delivered.
How it works
Found by hand — at closed markets and auctions, in attics and private collections. Chosen for one thing: a history worth telling.
We research the facts, write its full history, then prepare, seal and pack it — catalogued and documented like an archive piece.
You receive the artifact, open its Story Passport, and take your time getting to know the piece you now keep.
The Keeper's Circle · by request
A closed circle for true collectors — first sight of every find, and one sealed mystery each month. Entry is by request, and not every request is answered.
Every application is read by hand. If the door opens, a wax-sealed letter will find you.
Gallery & Tales