Reproductions & licensing

Everything The Complication sells is a reproduction of a historical work whose scan is released by its holding institution as public domain or open access. What you are buying is a newly made, archival-quality print (or the high-resolution digital file) — a physical object we produce to order at the size and format you choose. We claim no copyright over the underlying artwork, and nothing in our terms restricts the rights you already hold in those underlying works.

Provenance, on every page

A piece is never listed until its rights status, holding institution, source link, recorded license, and real scan dimensions are all verified — this is enforced in the site’s code, not just editorially. Every product page names the institution that holds the original (the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Rijksmuseum, the Library of Congress, the Wellcome Collection, and others), states the license the institution publishes the scan under (CC0, public-domain mark, or CC BY), and links the source record so you can check our provenance in one click.

The two CC BY pieces

Two pieces in the catalog — both engravings held by the Wellcome Collection, London — are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license rather than as public domain. Attribution is given on each of those pieces’ product pages: the Wellcome Collection is credited as the source, the CC BY 4.0 license is stated, and the source record is linked. We reproduce those scans faithfully, without modification beyond color management and print preparation.

Trade names

The Complication is unaffiliated with any watch manufacturer, past or present. Historical trade names visible within reproduced antique artworks appear solely as part of the historical artifact; nothing here trades on a living mark.

This page explains our practice; it is not legal advice. It is a working draft for the house’s launch and will be reviewed by counsel before paid traffic.