Sable.

One request · One principal

The method.

There is no catalogue and no recurring membership. Every request is handled as a private mandate, quoted as a complete Sable service and accepted only when the route to fulfilment is credible.

  1. 01

    The request first

    Nothing is offered before it is asked for. Tell us the outcome you want, the date it has to work by, and the one constraint that actually matters. We go and find out whether a route exists. Only then does anyone mention money.

  2. 02

    The route tested

    We deal with the source rather than the party in front of it, and we hold the terms in writing before you see a number. An enquiry is not an outcome. Someone who says they can probably get it has not got it. Where the route will not stand up, you are told that instead of being sent a quote.

  3. 03

    One final price

    One figure. It covers the supply, the duty, the carriage and what we take, and it arrives with an expiry date and the cancellation position written beside it. Nothing is added later — no handling charge, no currency movement, no fee that surfaces at delivery.

  4. 04

    Execution in private

    Your money sits apart until the thing is in your hands. We do not publish names, we do not trade on who we act for, and we will not use your mandate to win somebody else's. If you ever hear about a Sable client, it did not come from Sable.

What the desk is asked for

The register.

  1. Timepieces

    Full sets, unworn references and pieces that were never publicly listed. Condition, paperwork and chain of ownership are established before a figure is discussed.

  2. Rare objects

    Single items with a history behind them — instruments, manuscripts, pieces of a collection that last changed hands privately and quietly.

  3. Access & hospitality

    Rooms, tables and seats where no booking channel exists. Arranged around the principal and the wider itinerary, not around the fixture.

  4. Private mobility

    Aircraft, vessels and ground movement, including the unglamorous portions of a journey that decide whether the rest of it works.

  5. Provenance & authentication

    Independent verification commissioned before anything moves — and a refusal, stated plainly, when the chain of ownership will not hold.

  6. Standing mandates

    An open brief held over months: a reference to watch for, a fixture to secure each season, a collection to complete as pieces surface.

A discipline listed here is one the desk accepts requests in. It is not an inventory, and it is not a promise that any particular piece can be found in time.

Provenance and settlement

What the price includes.

Verified before it moves
We commission the authentication ourselves and never take the seller's word for it. Paperwork is checked against the piece, not against the invoice. Where the chain of ownership has a gap in it, you are told about the gap.
No checkout, no card
There is no basket and no payment page. A mandate settles by transfer, against a named invoice, once you have accepted the quote. We hold no card details because we never take any — there is nothing here to lose.
Funds held separately
Client money sits in a segregated account. It is released when delivery is confirmed — not when you accept the quote, and not because a supplier has asked for it early.
Carried, not posted
Significant pieces are put into your hands by a person named to you beforehand. Where that genuinely cannot be done, carriage is insured to full value and tracked to the door. How it travels is told to the principal and to nobody else.
One accountable party
One person holds your mandate from the introduction through to the close. No queue, no ticket number, and nobody handed the file halfway who has to be brought up to speed.
A refusal costs nothing
If it cannot be done properly in the time you have, we say so and invoice nothing. We would rather lose the mandate than hand you something you have to make excuses for.