Robert Murray Bell catalogued the entire collection into two notebooks now held in the Gardiner Museum’s archives. Each entry includes a sketch of the object, followed by information on its acquisition (place of purchase, date, cost). A description of the piece and comparable objects in other collections follow. Finally, Mr. Bell noted similar items that sold on the art market and their sale price.

Collectors will often be aware of similar objects in public (and private) collections, which can help further their understanding of their own collection. For this candlestick, Mr. Bell noted a comparable piece located at the Shanghai Museum. Find out more about this piece and see the similarity to the candlestick in the Shanghai Museum in the Object Highlights section!

Robert Bell meticulously documented comparable sales of objects in his collection. This can help collectors understand how the value of their collection changes over time, something important to know for insurance purposes. While he acquired this sprinkler in 1969 for $109, he was still updating his records in 1981 where he noted the sale of a similar piece for £115 in England.

This lion candlestick, donated to the Museum in 2010, found its way to the Bell’s collection from the estate of Ann Bell’s father, Howard C. Walker. It was passed down to Howard Walker from Mrs. Bell’s grandfather, Sir Edmund Walker, a Canadian banker, who had a great love of the arts and helped found the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Provenance is the history of an object’s ownership, starting from when it’s made, right up until the current owner. Archival documents like these notebooks are very helpful for identifying provenance information. In this notebook page Mr. Bell noted that they purchased the piece from Bluett and Sons in London for $367 in December 1964 and that it had previously belonged in the collection of Max Robertson, an English collector.