Two archives, queried live.
Every record below comes from The Met or Smithsonian Open Access and was filtered on that archive’s own rights field before it reached this page. 24 shown for “W. R., London” — 64 records examined, 32 dropped by the rights gate.
Archives queried 2026-09-04 15:12 UTC · fetched live for this request
isPublicDomain field is true for this object.metadata_usage.access reads CC0 — a waiver, not an expired term.
Wine cup
R. W., London · 1618–19

Paspalum psammophilum Nash ex Hitchc.
Artist not stated in the record · 1 Sep 1913

Spice box
W. R., London · 1602/3

Dichanthelium linearifolium (Scribn.) Gould
Artist not stated in the record · 3 Sep 1906

Vase with cover (one of a pair)
I H · 1675–76

Dichanthelium linearifolium (Scribn.) Gould
Artist not stated in the record · 4 Sep 1906

Box with scene depicting Roman hero Gaius Mucius Scaevola before the Etruscan king Lars Porsena
P R · 1741

Dichanthelium linearifolium (Scribn.) Gould
Artist not stated in the record · 2 Jul 1906

Double salt
R. P., London · 1620/21

Dichanthelium linearifolium (Scribn.) Gould
Artist not stated in the record · 3 Sep 1906

Wine cooler (one of a pair)
William Lukin I · 1716/17

Dichanthelium linearifolium (Scribn.) Gould
Artist not stated in the record · 12 Jul 1906

Jar in the form of a bird
R. W. Martin and Brothers · 1888

Dichanthelium linearifolium (Scribn.) Gould
Artist not stated in the record · 30 Jun 1906

Chinese musicians
Chelsea Porcelain Manufactory · ca. 1755

Paper curtain
Jeffrey & Co., 1836–1930 London, England · 1872

Armor Garniture of George Clifford (1558–1605), Third Earl of Cumberland
Jacob Halder · 1586

Peromyscus maniculatus gracilis
Artist not stated in the record · 14 Aug 1915

Cup with cover and stand (one of a pair)
John Parker · 1766/67

Sylvilagus floridanus mallurus
Artist not stated in the record · 6 Nov 1970

Presentation Smallsword with Scabbard
James Morisset · hallmarked for 1797–98

National Theater, New York
R. Bengough · 1837–1839

Teakettle and spirit lamp with stand
Paul de Lamerie · 1744/45

Microscope
R. & J. Beck · ca 1890
Where these records came from.
Two archives are wired, and only two. Each one is filtered on its own rights field — never on a title match, and never on the presence of an image file.
- The Met Collection API (Open Access)Rights field:
isPublicDomain. 27960 matched · 24 examined · 7 dropped by the rights gate. Kept only where isPublicDomain === true and a file URL was published.12 shown - Smithsonian Open Access API (api.si.edu)Rights field:
content.descriptiveNonRepeating.metadata_usage.access. 1759967 matched · 40 examined · 25 dropped by the rights gate. Kept only where metadata_usage.access === "CC0" and an image resource was published.12 shown
These figures describe the pass run at 2026-09-04 15:12 UTC, during this request. A completed pass is kept for 24 hours and replayed for an identical search, which is what keeps repeated queries inside Smithsonian’s 30-requests-per-hour allowance. A pass in which either archive failed to answer is never kept — an outage must not be replayed as though it were a finding about the catalogue.
Wikimedia Commons and the Library of Congress are deliberately not wired. Wikimedia was confirmed, on a live query, to return CC-BY material inside the same result set as genuine public domain works, and filtering it safely has not been designed yet. loc.gov was blocked by bot detection during the source evaluation, so its rights vocabulary has never been observed — and nothing here is built on a field nobody has read.
An image file is a rights claim. It never travels without its field.