# Research notes: the young draughtsman dossier

**Prepared:** 26 September 2026  
**Purpose:** public-facing research notes for a continuing investigation. They organise what is observed in the supplied photographs, what identified sources report, and what remains an inference or an open question. They do not constitute an attribution, valuation, legal opinion, provenance certification, or conservation report.

**Status, prepared 5 October 2026.** Notes 15 and 16 supersede the active watermark findings in notes 06, 10, 11 and 13. The September statement that no published Ter Borch Strasbourg-lily record had been found was a bounded metadata result. It is not the current finding. The drawing remains unattributed.

## How to read these notes

- **OBSERVED** means visible in a specified supplied image, scan, or reproducible comparison. It may still be limited by reproduction quality.
- **SOURCE-REPORTED** means an identified institutional record, catalogue, or scholarly source states it. It applies to that object or record only.
- **INFERRED** marks a reasoned possibility from listed evidence; it is not a source statement.
- **UNVERIFIED** marks a testable question without sufficient evidence.
- **CONTRADICTED** is used only where a stronger identified source conflicts with a specific claim.

The drawing remains **unattributed**. The present material does not establish a seventeenth-century date, an author, a sitter, a particular ink or paper composition, an authenticated signature, a historic provenance, or a direct copying mechanism.

## Contents

1. [Evidence status and current questions](01-evidence-status.md)
2. [Authorship and comparison controls](02-authors-and-comparison.md)
3. [The Ter Borch research lead](03-ter-borch-research-lead.md)
4. [RKD 116036, design relation, and reproduction history](04-rkd-design-and-reproductions.md)
5. [Dresden C 1421](05-dresden-c1421.md)
6. [Paper, watermark, and support](06-paper-watermark-support.md)
7. [Sitter and iconography](07-sitter-and-iconography.md)
8. [Provenance and reproduction history](08-provenance-and-reproduction-history.md)
9. [Execution, two-hands claims, and Drost](09-execution-drost-and-technical-images.md)
10. [Sources and next tests](10-sources-and-next-tests.md)
11. [Annotated bibliography](11-annotated-bibliography.md)
12. [Focused next steps: Aurora Belli and the complete 2005 catalogue](13-focused-next-steps.md)
13. [Verification addendum: public sources checked on 26 September 2026](14-verification-addendum.md)
14. [Watermark research update, prepared 5 October 2026](15-watermark-update-2026-10-05.md) — current watermark account
15. [Watermark sources and reading scope, prepared 5 October 2026](16-watermark-sources-2026-10-05.md)

The public research coverage register linked from the gallery records the treatment of the scientific notes that informed this set, including material retained only as an operational protocol or as a corrected historical claim. Private correspondence, private financial details, addresses, contracts, internal working instructions, and the original presentation files are not visitor content. Public catalogue-acquisition leads are distinguished from private financial information. Supplied extracted images are included with captions identifying what is observed, source-reported, and unverified. Each image retains its actual object-specific rights or permission status; inclusion here does not create a general reuse licence.