We don't describe condition. We grade it.
SFS buys objects of heritage, culture and provenance: pieces with a history worth recording, for buyers who can tell original from restored.
"Excellent vintage condition" appears on nearly every listing on this site, so we've stopped using it. Instead, our pieces of value now carry a mark: the house, a condition grade, the workshop where the piece was examined, the year, and the person who graded it.
The grade records two things: what has been done to the piece, and what state it's in. A credenza serviced with its original finish intact grades differently from the same credenza stripped and refinished. The second may look better. It is usually worth less, and we will tell you which one you're looking at.
If a graded piece does not meet its grade, we refund it in full.
Everything else we list is described plainly: what's original, what isn't, and what we don't know.
SFS · Austin, Texas · since 2026