SERVICE & COMMISSION TERMS
Ab Aeterno LLC
Effective 28 September 2026
These Service & Commission Terms apply to bespoke work, personalised objects, correspondence services, creative commissions, exhibitions, and other services commissioned from Ab Aeterno LLC (“Ab Aeterno,” “the House,” “we,” “us,” or “our”).
Any project-specific quotation, proposal, product page, correspondence, invoice, or written agreement forms part of these Terms. Where project-specific terms expressly differ from these general Terms, the project-specific terms will control.
1. The Nature of a Commission
A commission is work created, adapted, arranged, prepared, sourced, or produced specifically for a particular client or recipient.
Depending upon the commission, this may include original writing, portraiture, correspondence, design, artistic production, exhibition work, personalised objects, reproduction work, research-led creative work, or another service expressly accepted by the House.
Acceptance of a request is at the discretion of Ab Aeterno. Submission of an enquiry does not oblige the House to accept a commission.
2. Quotations and Scope
The scope of each commission will be established through the relevant product description, quotation, proposal, order form, invoice, correspondence, or other written confirmation.
The client is responsible for reviewing the agreed scope before payment or approval.
Requests falling materially outside the original scope may require:
an additional fee;
a revised delivery date;
a separate quotation; or
treatment as a new commission.
Any estimate concerning completion or delivery is based upon the information available when the estimate is made.
3. Client Materials and Instructions
The client is responsible for providing complete and accurate instructions, names, wording, addresses, reference photographs, measurements, files, permissions, and other materials reasonably required for the work.
Ab Aeterno is not responsible for errors reproduced from information supplied or approved by the client.
By providing photographs, writing, artwork, names, logos, or other material, the client represents that they have the right to provide and authorise its use for the commissioned work.
The client remains responsible for obtaining any permission required from a photographer, artist, copyright owner, trademark owner, or other third party.
4. Correspondence Services
For a correspondence service, the client is responsible for the substance and accuracy of the message submitted for printing or transmission.
The House may decline or cancel a request containing material that is unlawful, threatening, fraudulent, harassing, defamatory, discriminatory, invasive of another person's privacy, infringing, or reasonably likely to expose the House or another person to legal harm.
Ab Aeterno does not guarantee a recipient's response, interpretation, acceptance, or reaction to correspondence.
Where correspondence is delivered directly to a recipient, the client is responsible for supplying an accurate and deliverable recipient name and address.
5. Creative Discretion
Commissioning creative work necessarily involves artistic judgment.
Unless the commission expressly requires exact reproduction, the client acknowledges that matters including composition, scale, typography, colouring, cropping, placement, finish, materials, and other aesthetic decisions may involve reasonable creative discretion by the House.
Variations inherent to hand-finishing, natural materials, printing, analogue production, photography, screen display, and small-batch manufacture are not necessarily defects.
6. Proofs, Approvals and Revisions
Where a commission includes proofs or approval stages, the client is responsible for reviewing them carefully.
Once a proof has been approved, subsequent changes may incur additional fees and may delay completion.
The number of revisions included in a commission, if limited, will be stated in the relevant quotation, listing, or correspondence.
Silence does not constitute approval unless expressly agreed in writing.
7. Payment
Prices and payment requirements will be shown on the relevant product page, quotation, invoice, proposal, or written agreement.
Unless otherwise stated, work may be withheld from production, dispatch, publication, release, or delivery until sums then due have been paid.
Taxes, customs duties, import charges, brokerage charges, or similar governmental charges are the responsibility of the client unless expressly stated otherwise.
8. Cancellation of Bespoke Work
Because commissioned and personalised work may require reserved labour, research, writing, design, production, or materials specifically for the client, cancellation rights differ from those applying to ordinary stock merchandise.
Where work has not begun, Ab Aeterno will consider cancellation requests subject to any project-specific terms and applicable law.
Once bespoke work has begun, amounts attributable to work already undertaken, materials already ordered, third-party costs already incurred, and other non-recoverable commitments may not be refundable.
Personalised or made-to-specification goods may be excluded from statutory change-of-mind cancellation rights where permitted by applicable law.
Nothing in these Terms limits any cancellation, refund, or consumer right that cannot lawfully be excluded.
9. Completion and Delivery
Completion and dispatch dates are estimates unless expressly guaranteed in writing.
A client-caused delay—including delayed instructions, approvals, files, responses, measurements, or payments—may extend the completion date.
For physical merchandise ordered online, Ab Aeterno will comply with applicable requirements concerning promised shipment times, delay notifications, cancellation options, and refunds.
Once an item is transferred to a carrier, tracking and delivery may also depend upon the carrier, customs authorities, postal systems, weather, security procedures, and other circumstances outside the House's direct control.
10. Intellectual Property
Unless expressly agreed otherwise in writing, commissioning and paying for a work does not transfer copyright, design rights, trademarks, source files, preparatory material, underlying concepts, or other intellectual-property rights belonging to Ab Aeterno.
The client receives only the use expressly included with the commission.
For a commission intended solely for personal use, no commercial reproduction, resale, licensing, merchandising, publication, or exploitation is permitted unless separately authorised in writing.
Where commercial rights are included, their scope will be stated in the relevant written agreement.
No intellectual-property right is assigned by implication.
11. Portfolio and Publication
The House will not assume that private correspondence or confidential client material may be publicly reproduced.
For other commissioned creative work, any portfolio, exhibition, publication, or attribution rights will be governed by the project-specific agreement or permission given by the client.
Where confidentiality has been expressly agreed, Ab Aeterno will observe that agreement.
12. Refusal or Termination
Ab Aeterno may decline, suspend, or terminate a commission where:
requested material is unlawful or infringes another person's rights;
essential information has not been provided;
payment remains overdue;
the requested work materially departs from the agreed scope;
abusive or threatening conduct occurs; or
circumstances make lawful or responsible completion impracticable.
If the House terminates a commission for reasons unrelated to client breach, any appropriate refund will be calculated having regard to work completed and commitments already incurred, subject always to applicable law.
13. Liability
The House will perform services with reasonable care.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Ab Aeterno will not be liable for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential losses arising from a commission.
Where liability may lawfully be limited, aggregate liability relating to a commission will not exceed the amount paid to Ab Aeterno for that commission.
Nothing in these Terms excludes liability that cannot legally be excluded or restricts mandatory consumer rights.
14. Events Beyond Reasonable Control
Ab Aeterno is not responsible for delay or failure caused by circumstances reasonably beyond its control, including carrier disruption, customs delay, postal interruption, natural disaster, severe weather, utility or network failure, governmental action, civil emergency, labour disruption, supplier failure, or similar events.
The House will take reasonable steps to communicate significant delays affecting an active commission.
15. Governing Law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida, United States, without prejudice to any mandatory consumer protection rights that apply to a customer in their place of residence.
Where legally permitted, disputes concerning these Terms or a commission will be subject to the courts having jurisdiction in Broward County, Florida.
16. Contact
Questions concerning a commission or these Terms may be directed to:
Ab Aeterno LLC
1014 Broadway Street,
#491, Santa Monica,
CA 90401,
United States of America
house@theabaeterno.com
www.theabaeterno.com