arthistoricum.net

Since the hand copies are internal documentation of transactions, they often contain annotations that were or should be understandable only within the firm. These include, for example, numbers in various formats, which are often found instead of the names of the consignors. These are presumably warehouse numbers of Galerie Helbing and its various branches.

In connection with these numbers, additions such as "a metà" or "mit [Name]" are sometimes noted, indicating meta-trades or so-called "shares" - a common practice among art dealers to trade objects together.

In addition, some hand copies contain strings of letters instead of a limit price, and more rarely instead of the hammer price or bids. This is an internally used price coding. By comparing the different hand copies, the code word "RINDSKOPF" (beef head) could be determined. Each letter corresponds to a number between 1 and 9 (R=1, I=2 etc.). The letter H stands for zero, the letter E stands for the number immediately preceding it (e.g. RH=10; RSE=155).