Understanding values

The values of most things vary to a degree at least, depending on the number of people interested,  houses go up in price, only because people believe there are more people wanting to buy than sell, and at an auction the more people that have an interest in an item generally, the higher the price will reach.

Similarly the value of art is at least in part based upon the balance of supply against demand as well as like property a general perceived increase in value over time.

The price of new art is notionally based on the cost of production. A professional artist who expects to make a living knows the cost of materials used, and the amount of time he or she has put in and therefore has an idea of the sort of price a work needs to sell for, in order to pay the bills. With more specialist work, the artist may also have to recover the cost of travel to a far corner of the world and other expenses.

A major cost for the professional artist, often avoided by others, is conservation mounting and framing, which is essential if you expect the art work to last for many years, in addition the professional artist will have ordered a specially made frame to exactly fit the work rather than employed a discount off the shelf frame as well as probably using higher quality non reflective glass at least, and possibly even the best but extremely expensive museum glass. The difference in a mid sized frame is that a discount model with plain glass may cost £15 while the professional artist may spend up to or even more than £250.

The photographic artist likewise will cost up things in a similar way, and also have to allow for the depreciation of the costly technology employed that quickly goes out of date. He or she has to also consider what income they would derive if they put the same amount of time and effort into another photographic area.

All artists expect to sell a sizable proportion of their work through galleries or other outlets and therefore have to allow for the large margin these will want, as well as the cost or time in promoting the work generally or to the galleries in particular.

The second check in valuations, as in providing any other product or service, is to ask the question what would it cost the client, if they had the skills to produce the same product. The cost would of course in an art product usually include some subcontracted tasks such as mounting and framing to a conservation standard. Obviously the time has to be considered as valuable as it is in their current employment, and also allowing for holidays, and other costs.

Having purchased a work of art, be it an original or a limited edition, its onward valuation will depend in part on what other work by the same artist is selling at and in the case of the limited edition the current cost of ordering the same limited edition. This is best looked at as the cost of replacement value. Once the edition is sold out, the value will quite naturally be higher as it is no longer available from the artists or their representatives.

As an edition gets towards its end it increases in value, but it can be difficult for the collector to guess the position of this, and partly to assist collectors and partly to stimulate new editions some artists and publishers have devised methods of pricing where a discount is applied, and reduced as the edition is sold out.

In addition work by quality artists, including photographers has increased drastically over the last few years. We have seen the prices our work is listed at more than doubling in the last year alone. So all our regular collectors have seen their collections more than double in value. In the next 12 months we expect the prices to continue to rise at a very fast rate, possibly even more than the last year.

Out of the past

Using editing ideas and ability to create a work
 of art, representing an idea.
We don't have artists proofs, but have replaced these with a signature edition, which is the same size as an artists proof edition would be but rather than being the identical item with just a different numbering system it is a special edition in one chosen size only, where the photographic artist who took and edited the photograph,  has chosen a specific combination of mounts and a special frame to represent a complete artistic view.  Our normal mounting is done to a high standard, but with a common style and you have a choice of frames to go with this, which has the benefit of a more unified look if you want to hang them as sets in a home or office rather than a gallery with a  variety of mounting and framing styles. The signature edition is in one size only and with a smaller run size is of particular interest to serious art collectors. It is as you will expect, priced above the final price of the normal edition.

While you will have seen limited editions running to very many thousands, and many running to 800, some even to 8,000 we have currently limited all of our editions in two overlapping ways. Firstly we have limited the number of copies in a size to just 80, and secondly we have limited the number across all sizes in the normal limited edition to just 295. The only addition to this currently is the signature edition which is limited to just 30, and in a single size only. On the normal limited edition the on-frame representation is shown as 80/80 down to 1/80, while the certificate of authenticity also shows the limit across all sizes to be limited to 295.

We found others offering limited edition photographs to have gone either for just a limit across all sizes or a limit per size but no limit to the number of sizes that will be introduced. We discussed this with a number of collectors and a business angel network representing investors, both who felt a combination approach, combined with the discounting pricing formula would maximise the increase in real and perceived values and appeal to collectors.

Next  - Sizes and styles