What is my print worth?

1One print, three values

Antiques Roadshow explains that an antique or collectible has three different values: auction, retail and insurance. For ordinary pieces, auction prices are usually lower than retail shop prices. Insurance values tend to be set at the top end of retail, so that the owner could buy a replacement from a dealer.¹

The tax authorities draw the same line. The IRS defines fair market value as the price agreed between a willing buyer and a willing seller, and says that in most cases replacement cost bears no relationship to it. It also warns that catalogs, dealers’ price lists and hobby periodicals are not always reliable guides, and that a dealer may sell an item for much less than its list price, especially after it has sat unsold.²

So the figure on an insurance appraisal, a gallery tag or a publisher’s price list answers a different question from the one an owner is asking. A dealer who buys from you will not pay full retail either, because the dealer needs a margin to resell.^1,2

What counts for a seller is what prints like yours have recently sold for. The International Society of Appraisers says fair market value is determined from completed sales, and that eBay is a valid source of comparable sales for many items, provided you look at completed sales.³

2Why so many signed prints sell for so little

There was a brisk market for wildlife prints in the 1970s and 1980s. Southwest Art traced the trade in limited-edition prints to 1967, when Frame House Gallery of Louisville began marketing them, and said sales hit full stride within a decade.^4,5

Editions grew with demand. A 1981 article in Sporting Classics said most prints were then produced in editions of 500 to 1,000, with some as high as 5,000. In 1989 Bev Doolittle’s Sacred Ground was issued in an edition of just under 70,000.^6,5

Many buyers treated prints as investments. A dealer told Southwest Art that investors in the 1980s often bought as many as ten prints by a popular artist and held them, expecting them to appreciate. For a while some did: Doolittle’s Pintos, issued at $65 in 1979, reputedly resold for up to $10,500 in the early 1990s.⁵

Then the market turned. A dealer quoted by the same magazine in 1997 had seen a definite downturn in the resale market since 1994, and another said a print often declined in value a year after issue. Kovels says many people who bought large collections of limited editions as investments saw prices plummet in the 1990s, and that heirs are often surprised how little such a collection is worth.^5,7

Antique Trader sums it up: the implied promise of lasting market value gave way to oversupply and a loss of interest among younger generations.⁸

That history shows in what the prints sell for now. These are the eleven artists on this site, with eBay sold prices from our latest snapshot.

3Edition size, and what “limited” means

An edition is a series of identical impressions made from the same printing surface. Since the late nineteenth century print runs have usually been restricted and declared as a limited edition, and Tate says modern artists’ prints are usually limited to a number anywhere between 2 and 1,000 or more.⁹

The number on a print is written like a fraction. The figure to the right of the slash is the size of the edition; the figure to the left is that print’s own number.¹⁰

Proofs sit outside that count. Impressions identical to the edition may be marked AP, for artist’s proof, or PP, for printer’s proof. One auction-house glossary says roughly ten percent of a print run is assigned as artist’s proofs.^9,11

A smaller edition makes a print rarer, which Sotheby’s says often increases its value. The word “limited” covers a very wide range: Sabra Field’s Boiling is an edition of 300, and Sacred Ground an edition of 69,996.^12,13,14

Some editions were limited by time and not by number. Kovels notes that collectibles promoted as limited editions from the 1970s onward were limited either by quantity or by a period of production. Several of Doolittle’s prints were “personal commissions”, with the edition limited to the number ordered within a short period.^7,5

An open edition has no stated limit. One print dealer’s glossary calls open-edition prints inherently less valuable, but that is not a rule: Field published hand-pulled woodcuts such as Hill Farm Autumn as open editions.^15,16

4What kind of print is it?

In 1997 Southwest Art described Robert Bateman, Terry Redlin and Bev Doolittle as a triad of offset lithographic print artists. Offset lithography is a photomechanical process: the ink goes from a metal plate to a rubber cylinder and then to the paper.^5,11,17

A magnifying glass usually tells you. Under low magnification an offset lithograph shows a regular pattern of ink dots across the image. An Antiques Roadshow print appraiser calls a uniform pattern of dots the sign of a reproduction, and adds that the test is a general guide that does not catch every one.^17,18

An original print is a different thing. In a woodcut the artist makes the image on the block and the impression is printed directly from it. The print is the work of art, not a copy of one.^19,20

Some states treat the difference as something a buyer must be told. California and New York both require disclosure when a print is a photomechanical reproduction of an image made in a different medium.^21,22

A signature does not settle it. Under California law a print counts as signed only if the artist autographed it by hand after it was produced; a signature that is only in the plate does not count.²³

5Condition

Sotheby’s calls fading the most serious condition problem, because lost color cannot be restored. Light damage to works on paper is cumulative and irreversible, and a faded print does not recover when it is put back in the dark.^12,24,25

• Mat burn: darkened lines around the margin, where the cut edge of an acidic mat met the paper.^26,24
• Foxing: small brown spots, probably caused by mold or tiny metal particles in the paper combined with high humidity and temperature.²⁶
• Discoloration: darkening of the paper from prolonged exposure to light or contact with non-archival mat board.¹²
• Trimming: the sheet cut down from its original size. Like fading it cannot be put right, and Christie’s says it affects a print’s value.^12,10

The IRS lists physical condition and the extent of any restoration among the things that bear on the value of a work of art.²

[how much each fault takes off the price not confirmed]

6Framing

Framing decides how a print ages. Poor-quality framing materials release acids that leave paper embrittled, stained and discolored, and a mat faced with acid-free paper can still damage a print if its core is acidic.^27,24

Conservators recommend cotton rag mat board and glazing that filters ultraviolet light; ordinary glass does not block it. A framed print should never touch the glazing, and even behind filtering glass it should hang in subdued light. Never attach pressure-sensitive tape to the paper.^27,24

[whether a frame adds to the resale price not confirmed]

7Certificates of authenticity

A certificate is worth what its issuer is worth. ArtBusiness.com says a certificate of authenticity is likely to be meaningless unless it comes from and is signed by the artist, the publisher of a limited edition, an established dealer or agent of the artist, or an acknowledged expert. No law generally governs who may write one, and art that comes with a certificate is not automatically genuine.²⁸

A useful certificate describes the print. In California a dealer’s certificate must state the medium or process, and for a limited edition the numbers of signed or numbered impressions, unsigned impressions and proofs, and the total size of the edition.^21,28

For publishers’ prints the certificate is part of what was originally sold. The Greenwich Workshop says a certificate of authenticity accompanies each of its editions, and resale listings for Bev Doolittle prints often mention the original certificate and folder.^29,30,31

8How to find out what yours sells for

1. Work out exactly what you have: the artist, the title, the kind of print, and the edition number if there is one. Our pages for Sabra Field and Bev Doolittle list what to look for.
2. Look at sold listings, not asking prices. eBay’s completed-listings search covers listings that sold in the previous 90 days.³²
3. Read Best Offer sales with care. eBay says its Product research tool shows the actual price an item sold for even when a Best Offer was accepted, which the ordinary completed-listings search does not promise.³²
4. Compare like with like: the same edition, the same kind of print, similar condition, framed against framed.
5. For insurance, an estate or a tax question, use a qualified appraiser who can examine the print. Museums will not do it: Smithsonian staff, for example, are not permitted to give monetary valuations.³³

Sold listings on eBay for the artists covered so far:

Affiliate links Links to eBay and Amazon on this page are affiliate links: if you buy after following one, Artist Galleries may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. How this works.

• Sabra Field: sold listings (affiliate link to eBay)
• Gordon Mortensen: sold listings (affiliate link to eBay)
• Bev Doolittle: sold listings (affiliate link to eBay)
• Terry Redlin: sold listings (affiliate link to eBay)
• Robert Bateman: sold listings (affiliate link to eBay)
• Carl Brenders: sold listings (affiliate link to eBay)
• Ray Harm: sold listings (affiliate link to eBay)
• Les Kouba: sold listings (affiliate link to eBay)
• David Maass: sold listings (affiliate link to eBay)
• Stephen Lyman: sold listings (affiliate link to eBay)
• P. Buckley Moss: sold listings (affiliate link to eBay)