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The concept of a limited edition is not new in that some of the earlier masters of art had workshops that made a number of 'copies' of their works, to allow a wider ownership of their art. Engravers were popular very long ago, producing a number of images off of the plate produced, often the first group while the plate was new carrying a 'Proof' mark, and therefore aimed at collectors who would value it more. For many years artists have produced a work, had it either scanned or photographed and reproduced it as a limited edition run. Look at many of the best and most popular galleries, and you will discover the majority of their display is limited edition works. By limiting the reproduction to a set number makes it collectable and as long as the run size is sensible and the quality high, nearly guarantees that it will increase in value, once the edition runs out. Many now price their work including a discount for early sales so that a price or value increase is built into the pricing structure. The value of limited editions vary, in some cases affected by being a known artist, but more on the perceived hanging value, and edition size. Except for work that museums bid for most art is greatly affected by perceived hanging value, by this we mean that a painting or other work of art will be more sought after if more people would like to actually enjoy having it hung on their wall, rather than just collected and stored away. The most successful artist of our time is the American Thomas Kinkade, who produces limited editions running into many thousands of each size of a work, and in some cases multiple concurrent editions of the same work. There are a large number of galleries and outlets devoted to selling Kinkade editions with individual limited edition works selling at above the average price. While some pottery, statues and jewellery are sold on the basis that they are offered for a set time and the number is limited to what sells within the time frame, most hanging art is sold on the basis of a fixed edition size. A limited edition artwork can have a Tirage (description) that includes something like:- "Edition: 160, 31 AP, 5 PP, 5 EP, 66 TP" This shows the headline limited edition to be 160, but also there to be other subsets, 31 artists proofs, 5 printers proofs, 5 experimental proofs and 66 trade proofs so in total there are not 160 but 267 in the overall edition. This is taken from a real case tirage of a work produced by a well known artist. The Thomas Kinkade editions are normally a number of thousands in each of several sizes and about 10% of the print run shown as artists proofs selling for about 25% more. So in this case an edition could be of more than 10,000 in total. It is common for 10% extra produced on the print run to be given to the artist, as the royalty deal or a part of it, and be a separate part of the edition, being numbered separately. So perhaps with limited editions of 400, the artist is given 40, therefore the main limited edition bears the numbers 1/400 through to 400/400, where the artist proofs are labelled 1/40 through to 40/40. Sometimes these editions will contain some indication such as 30/40/AP, but in many cases only the special editions may bear some indication, such as a proof stamp while in many other cases it is just covered in the certificate of authenticity that is presented with the work. For a collector it rarely matters if it is the first or last copy, but the edition size shown will be important, with a lower number being preferred, so the artists proof being numbered out of 40 has greater value than the limited edition headline edition out of 160, although they are identical, and printed as a part of the same run. Experimental and printers proofs may vary and are therefore unique and may be sought after, but these are less likely to be offered for general sale and used for gifts etc, and only later enter the market. Trade proofs can be a way to rebalance the royalty formula where the artist has a larger part to start, or may be some form of promotional exercise. There are many ways to create a work of art, ranging from blobs of paint to detailed images, to photographs. In the same way as anyone could squiggle with a paintbrush, conceptually anyone could take a photograph, and while the skills may differ slightly, the art work is produced by and with the skill of the artist, be they a painter or a photographer. The end image can be produced by a number of methods, ranging from large numbers printed with a litho machine, a very similar process to printing a magazine, through to Giclee printing, where each print is printed individually. Often where the edition size is large, litho will be chosen, while where the edition size is small Giclee prints are produced. Today most images you will see in quality galleries are Giclee, as the images are brighter, sharper and far more valued. A Giclee print that is properly mounted can be expected to remain in the same condition for at least 80 years under indoor conditions and behind glass, so has a longer life expectancy than many other methods. It can be printed onto many types of medium, including high quality papers, film and canvas. When work is produced to archival standard, it is far cheaper to produce a canvas image than to mount and use expensive museum glass to show the colours and details fully. Canvas images don't show the same brightness and detail. Often you will find galleries have images behind glass of different qualities up to a size and larger images that are expected to be viewed from further away are produced as canvases. Many however use lower quality glass as the museum glass is so expensive. |
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