How we use AI at Nicholas Wells Antiques
Every antique we sell is photographed and described as it truly is. Where we use AI tools to help present a piece, these are our rules.
What we do
Historically, every photograph on this website was taken by Nicholas Wells, who learnt his craft at Mallett, where he managed photography, the website and publications. We work with several cameras, including a Canon 5DSR and a Hasselblad H4D-40, and we hold our images to the precision of a high-end studio.
Today we use AI to edit those photographs. It gives us a consistently clean background and no colour casts, and it saves the hours once spent spotting dust from background paper. The piece itself is never altered: it appears exactly as photographed. We check every edit against the object itself, and we often send an image back to the original file for reference, so it never drifts further from the piece as photographed. We have a highly trained eye, and we apply it to every item.
- We start from the real object. Every image is edited from our own photographs of the exact piece in front of us.
- Any damage, repair, wear or restoration is shown and noted, never hidden or tidied away.
- We describe each piece in our own words, checked against the object.
Our descriptions
Every description on this site is checked against the object by Nicholas Wells before it appears. Where we use a large language model to help with wording, it is given only what we know about the piece, and we correct anything it gets wrong. We do not let it invent history, provenance or condition.
These tools improve and change quickly, so we review how we use them regularly. As they develop, we revisit our descriptions and update them where we can say something more accurately or more clearly.
What we don't do
- We never invent patina, carving, gilding or condition the piece doesn't have.
- We never use AI to make a piece look better, older or rarer than it is.
- We never swap one piece for another.
Disclosure
Where an image has been edited or enhanced with AI, we say so. If anything in an image looks different from the piece when you see it, tell us and we will correct it. You are always welcome to ask for extra photographs, a condition report or a video.
