For advisers and institutions
A common language for markets that do not have one.
Family offices, private banks and wealth advisers are increasingly asked to hold a view on assets that do not trade on a screen. Saphia gives them the same cited, dated briefing on each one, read in the same order every time.
Specialist markets have specialists, and the specialist usually has an interest in the outcome. What is missing is an independent account a non-specialist can read before the meeting: who controls supply, where price is actually discovered, what provenance means in that market, how long an exit takes and what it costs. Markets from gold and copper to Old Masters and saffron are covered, each with a Σ grade for how practical the asset is to own and exit, stated separately from any view on return.
Where it is used
A structured first read of an unfamiliar market before engaging a dealer, auction house or valuer, with the questions already framed.
Inherited or long-held assets, cellars, jewellery, watches, art, that need to be understood before a keep-or-sell conversation.
Comparing holding practicality across unrelated markets on one scale, Σ1 to Σ5, rather than on each specialist's own terms.
Independent, sourced evidence to test a valuation, an attribution claim or a liquidity assumption put forward by an interested party.
In practice
Five situations an adviser might meet this year, one or two for each use above, and what changes when the brief has been read first. The situations are illustrative; the markets, prices and mechanisms are the ones on the site.
The situation. A solicitor is winding up an estate that includes 300 cases of Bordeaux in bond, a dozen cases of prestige Champagne in the house, and a folder of certificates for six whisky casks bought from a firm that has since gone into administration.
What Saphia gives. Three briefs read in the same order. The wine and Champagne are Σ2: Liv-ex prices exist, the merchant can value and sell within weeks, and the Champagne that left bond will be repriced on condition. The casks are Σ4, and the brief says why the first question is not value but title: a certificate is a claim against the seller, a delivery order is ownership, and the warehouse should be contacted before any valuer.
What changes. The executor instructs the merchant and the warehousekeeper the same week, in the right order, and tells the beneficiaries which part of the estate is an asset and which part is a creditor's claim.
The situation. A principal who races a few horses is offered one share in a newly retired champion at a price that implies a nine-figure valuation for the horse. The stud's agent has the first-season fee, the book and a projection; the family office has a week.
What Saphia gives. The Breeding Stallions brief: how a stallion is valued, who sets the fee, when the evidence arrives, and the record of one horse whose fee was cut three years running while his yearlings sold for six times it. The syndicate agreement terms to ask for, the right of first refusal, and what a share is worth if the runners disappoint.
What changes. The office goes into the conversation knowing that the implied valuation is a scarcity price for one share, that income follows a fee the seller controls, and that the exit is a closed room. It may still buy; it will not be surprised.
The situation. A relationship manager's client has been sent a brochure promising 8–12% tax-free annual returns from whisky casks, with a chart of the firm's own index. The client wants to know whether to put in £200,000.
What Saphia gives. The Scotch Whisky Association's own statement that there is no regulated market, no price list and no mechanism for selling a cask; the 22 million casks in bond against falling exports; the £80 m collapse of 2025 and what separated the clients who recovered their casks from those who did not; and a note on where the tax exemption comes from and what it does and does not do.
What changes. The manager can answer in an hour with sources, rather than in a fortnight with an opinion, and can put the same questions to any brochure for any cask, tea cake or cellar that arrives next.
The situation. A credit committee is asked to lend against an Old Master catalogued as by a named artist, with a recent auction estimate as the valuation. Nobody on the committee has lent against a painting before.
What Saphia gives. The attribution ladder and what each step costs; the share of recent headline lots that were guaranteed or sold to a single bidder; how export licences and restitution claims can block or reprice a sale after the hammer; and the difference between a scholar's opinion and a laboratory report.
What changes. The committee writes its own conditions, a second opinion on attribution, an export position, a haircut that reflects a months-long exit through two sales a year, instead of adopting the auction house's number.
The situation. A multi-family office is reviewing a client's "tangibles" line: bullion, a watch collection, a parcel of sapphires bought in Bangkok, and three guitars. Each came with its own specialist and its own vocabulary.
What Saphia gives. One scale. Gold is Σ1 and can be sold in days at a fraction of a per cent; watches are Σ3 with a deep but volatile secondary market; the sapphires are Σ4 unless the laboratory reports are from the right laboratories; the guitars are Σ3 and worth two different sums depending on which parts are original. The same four structural questions asked of each.
What changes. The review can say which holdings are liquid, which are illiquid and which are unverified, in a sentence each, and the keep-or-sell conversation starts from the right place.
Working with Saphia
All market briefs are published openly and will remain so. For advisers and institutions, Saphia can provide briefings on markets not yet covered, deeper work on a single market or holding, and a periodic update on the markets that matter to a given book. There is no subscription and no product list; work is scoped to the decision in hand, whether that is a single briefing, a piece of specialist research or ongoing coverage of a defined set of markets.
Commissioned work does not buy influence. A client may ask for a market to be covered; the method, the sources and the conclusions are Saphia's, and any commissioned brief that is published is marked as such. Saphia does not act for buyers or sellers in any market it covers.
Write with the markets you care about and the decision in front of you.
hello@saphia.ioSaphia (ΣΟΦΙΑ) publishes market intelligence and data. It does not publish investment advice, does not accept payment for coverage, and does not carry advertising.