My rule of thumb has been that if the parts can function separately, each gets a number.  A cup and saucer would each get a number.  But two things that are used as a whole object with detachable parts (teapot and lid) get –a and –b numbers.  I would number your set as:

•First cup:   1998-00005-001

•First saucer:   1998-00005-002

•Second cup:   1998-00005-003

•Second saucer:   1998-00005-004

•Pot:   1998-00005-005a

•Cover:   1998-00005-005b

From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Juetian Luo
Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2012 10:53 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MUSEUM-L] Whole or Parts number?

Hello to all (Registrars especially),

I would like to seek your advise on the following:
We are trying to come up with some good guiding principle on when we should assign Part Accession Numbers and when we should assign Whole Accession Numbers to things. E.g., when assigning accession numbers to a teapot set consisting of 2 sets of cup and saucer and a pot with cover, we would assign in the following manner.

However, the marrying of items may sometimes be subjective and context dependent. e.g., if a jacket is always worn with a particular dress by this donor, and the curator decides to put them together as a "default" set, do we then assign each item a whole number or the set as a whole number with parts (i.e., the jacket is part 1, and the dress part 2)? How things could come together extrinsically can sometimes be very subjective, such as the jacket and the dress. The topic was debated at great length at our meeting.

Other controversial cases would be photos in an album for example.

Does any of you have any such written "numbering" guidelines that we can follow? Basically, we are trying to articulate the rationale of how we should assign numbers so that we can do it in some consistent manner.

I am desperate for some good advice!
Thanks in advance.

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