Posts Tagged ‘editions’

While many consider ‘original’ art to be the most valuable, there are many prints that bring surprising prices.  John James Audubon prints are widely known and collected — and reproduced by the millions.  How do you know if your print is valuable or someone’s promotional give-away?  Ron Flynn has some advice.  Although now retired, for many years Mr. Flynn collected, sold, and authored guides to the prints of Audubon and shares much of this knowledge on his website [http://www.auduboninfo.net/index.htm].

The first Audubon edition, Birds of America published in London, included 435 hand colored prints, issued in 87 parts of 5 prints each, and spanned the years 1826-1838.  Other editions of Birds of America were followed by The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America and Quadrupeds of North America, also with more than one edition.  Modern day editions of high quality began appearing in the early 1970s.  Of course, there’s cheap prints, calendars, posters, copies, etc. numbering in the millions.

So which is worth keeping, and which do you wrap the fish in?  Actually, it’s a little complicated when you realize just how many editions (some quite limited) were produced under different labels.  Mr. Flynn does an remarkable job of explaining in detail each of the collections – size, paper, ink, printing process, watermark, embossing, plate number, and more.  All details that, with a bit of detective work, can help you identify your print.  It’s unlikely you’ll run across one of the early editions, but some of the modern ones bring quite respectable prices.  Maybe it’s time to take a closer look at Audubon print that’s hung over Grandma’s fireplace for years.