With all different kinds and types of prints being offered on eBay how do you know what you are buying?  Is it "real" art or a reproduction?  Does it have any collectible or investment value?  Are reproductions still good art and how do I know the difference between them?  That's a lot of questions and the answers aren't as neatly defined as they once were.  So, first, perhaps a short discussion is in order on the subject of what art is and that is an even more difficult question.

Marcel Duchamp said that art was anything he called "art" and he proceeded to illustrate his statement with common ordinary items that he displayed out of their original context.  Expanding on his definition, my own opinion is that art is anything the artist creates with their own hands whether assembled or created from "scratch" or is displayed in a unique way which has some emotional content for the viewer.  Notice that last section.  One person's art can then be another person's trash.  If a piece of art doesn't move you then it is no more than a pretty design or something much less.  Picasso once said that he wanted to put razor blades in his paintings so when the viewer reached out to touch the canvas they would bleed.  A good piece of art doesn't need razor blades; it only needs a response from you, the viewer.  Nor does it have to be original art or have investment value to be enjoyable.

Back to prints and what they are and are not.  A print is obviously not an oil painting, a sculpture, a piece of pottery or jewelry, or a drawing ... although prints could be made from all of those and they could incorporate prints within them.  Although sculptures are not produced in limited editions, in the case of bronze castings, they can be.  Oil paintings (or acrylic paintings), watercolors and drawings are almost always one of a kind item.  This is one of the advantages printmaking has over other art forms; the ability for the artist to create, with relative ease, multiple copies of a single work.  These multiple copies, called impressions, allow a work to be seen, enjoyed and owned by many people rather than just one.  Each print is, in effect, the original work of art.

Prints can be broadly divided into artist produced works of art and mechanically reproduced pictures.  Those categories can each be further divided into limited editions prints (signed or unsigned) of a known quantity and open edition prints that can be of any size.  An open edition can continue to be printed after its original press run and can be reprinted.

Fine art, limited edition prints are created by an artist using many different techniques and are, normally, signed by the artist in pencil in the margin of the paper across the bottom of the print.  Also across the bottom should be the number of prints in the edition and the individual number of each print.  The title may be included also.  For example 28/450 represents print 28 of 450.  Next could be the title of the print and the signature of the artist.  AP in place of the number signifies that this print is an Artist's Proof, a print drawn during the creation of the final edition.  An artist's proof may be the final proof before the printing of the edition or it may only be from one stage in the evolution of the final work.  Often the date of the work's creation is added.

The Woodcut or wood block print:  Often printed on rice paper and associated with Japan this method of making prints is the first discovered.  Woodcuts originated in China but when is not known.  By 800 C.E. woodblock prints were being produced there in great quantities.  But before there could be wood block prints it was necessary to invent paper which also happened in China around 100 C.E.  It took almost 1100 years before papermaking reached Europe and the oldest surviving woodblock in the western world was found in France and dated from about 1370.

Wood block prints are the easiest and cheapest for the artist to produce.  That does not, however, make them any less beautiful or less desirable.  All that is need is a block of wood, a cutting tool, some ink, a piece of paper and a stone to transfer the image to the paper.  The "white" areas are those which are cut away and the part of the wood left is inked, paper lain over the block and the paper rubbed with a smooth surface (rock, spoon, etc.) to transfer the image.  Color wood block prints are made from more than one wood block.

Engraving:  A very sharp, pointed tool (burin or graver) is used on a copper plate to cut v-shaped grooves in the metal or actually remove slivers of metal.  The plate is covered with ink which is removed from the surface and then run through a press which forces the paper into the grooves where it picks up the ink and lifts it out attached to the paper.  Both engravings and etchings have raised surfaces that you can both see and feel.  Steel engraving is the method used to make most of the world's paper money.  Look closely at a crisp, new bill and you can probably see the raised lines of ink.  You may even be able to feel them.

Etching:  Using that same type of engraver's copper plate the artist covers it in an acid-resistant medium (ground) and cuts through that to the surface of the plate using a pointed etching needle.  The plate is then immersed in an acid bath which creates the incised lines similar to those in an engraving.  In the same way the plate is inked, the surface ink removed and the plate ran through a press with the print paper.

Dry point engraving (or dry point etching):  So called because no acid is used in the process.  A sharp steel tool is used to "draw" on the plate.  The scratch in the surface raises a burr which will catch and hold ink.  The plate is then printed in the same manner as engravings and etchings.

Mezzotint:  The mezzotint can create tonal subtleties that can't be accomplished in engravings.  A spiky rocker (roulette) is rolled repeatedly over the surface of the copper plate which raises a burr with each spike's contact.  These burrs can hold ink for printing.  A metal scraper or a burnisher is used to reduce the burr and create gray areas and white space.  A mezzotint can reproduce very subtle graduations from the lightest, softest grays to the deepest blacks.

Aquatint:  Quite misnamed, this technique does not involve the use of water.  The ground in this case allows the acid to penetrate through thousands of microscopic holes.  The length of time in the acid bath determines the depth and diameter of the etched hole and therefore the density of the ink deposited on the paper.  This way an almost infinite range of grays to black can be produced.

Lithograph:  As oil and water doesn’t mix this printing process uses both to produce beautiful prints.  Mechanized this is the process used in most commercial printing companies to produce everything from the daily newspaper through magazines to forms and financial instruments.  In fine art printing a hard surface capable of absorbing water is drawn on with an oil-based crayon, soaked with water and inked.  The ink will only "stick" to the greasy crayoned area and is then transferred to the paper.  Traditionally the block is a very fine-grained limestone slab.

Serigraph:  Serigraphs (or silk-screen print) are produced using a piece of open-weave material (silk) stretched on a frame.  The material is blocked in areas using many different methods.  The ink is placed along one corner of the inside of the frame, the frame place on the paper and the ink is then squeezed through the open areas of the material using a squeegee very similar to the one used to clean windows.  Serigraphs show a pattern of the weave of the cloth.  Commercially the same process is used to print t-shirts and the wording on glass Coke bottles.

Monoprint:  A fine art print is usually created in multiples of itself.  A single impression using any of the above techniques and then transferring the image thus created to paper constitutes a monoprint.  As each one is a single, unique image, these are much closer to painting, watercolor and drawing.   One method consists of painting on a sheet of glass and then transferring the still wet color to paper.

Photograph:  Although photographs can be printed in the hundreds, thousands and more, many fine art photographers have begun making limited editions of their photos.  After the final print is made the original negative is defaced or destroyed.  The photos are printed with a margin which is then signed much in the traditional way.  As pencil will not remain indelibly on the surface of a photograph most photographers sign their prints in ink.

These are the major fine art print processes.  Combinations of all of these techniques are possible in a single print.  Black and white prints using these techniques can also be hand colored.

The commonality in all these processes is that the print is individually printed, one at a time, by the artist (or artist's assistant).  The key is that they are hand processes rather than machine or mechanically reproduced prints.

Mechanically reproduced prints:  Any image can be mechanically reproduced in millions of copies through the use of various printing methods.  Whether printed through letterpress or lithography these images are a part of our daily lives.  We are surrounded by them: billboards and outdoor advertising, post cards, magazines, product packaging.  Many people believed that mechanical reproductions would be the death of art.  In fact, the opposite has occurred.  The hand-produced image is more valuable because of its scarcity alone.

The line between fine art prints and mechanically printed ones blurs when an artist takes an image to a commercial printer, has it reproduced (printed) in a run of a certain number and then hand-signs each print.  The artist created the original image.  The artist signed each print.  Are these prints identical in quality (or artistic desirability)?  I'll have to leave that answer to the gurus of investment art and the test of time.

Blurring it more is the print that is signed but only in situ.  Meaning that the original work was signed and the reproduction also reproduces that signature.  Think of a photograph of a signed oil painting.  The signature is visible but it is not an original signature.

This, in my opinion, further devalues the work but makes it no less desirable to a person who otherwise can't afford original work by that artist.  For example I have a mechanically printed engraving of a Renoir figure study that only cost me a few dollars.  Were it an original print its value would be in the tens of thousands of dollars (or more) and way beyond my means.  But, to me, it is just as beautiful.

Currently in vogue with artists and photographers is the Giclee print.  "Giclee" (zhee-clay) is a French term, in this case meaning, "spray of ink".  This printing technique rose from the digital world of ink jet printers.  These specialized printers spray ink droplets onto any surface but usually paper or cotton canvass.  Although this process could be used to make an unlimited number of copies it is usually reserved for creating museum quality prints, in a limited edition, because of its cost.

Open editions vs. Limited editions:  An open edition is simply one with no final number of impressions.  Any of the above fine art processes could be used to create an open edition but because they are labor intensive and time consuming they are normally relegated to limited editions in the range of a few copies to less than 1000.  If a limited edition is produced in amounts greater than 1000 it is usually a result of being printed in a commercial process.  The artist can still individually hand-sign each print and call it a signed, limited edition.

Open editions are usually what you find in the department stores and discount houses.  They are unsigned (except for those signed in situ) and produced in massive quantities.  I'll leave it to you to determine if these images have any artistic value.

A final work on archival quality in prints and printmaking:  If you are purchasing original art for an investment it would pay to know how it was produced, on what type of paper and with what type of ink.  An archival created work will last for hundreds of years.  On the other hand, if you are buying art just for your own enjoyment it is fine if it only lasts through your lifetime.

So, then a print can be a print but often it is not "real" art; at least not individually, hand produced, fine art.  The key in all this, for you the buyer, is in educating yourself and determining what type of images you want in your collection, originals or mechanical reproductions, and what you can afford.

Many artists on eBay are now using mechanically reproduced prints of their originals.  Be careful to read the full description so you know what you are purchasing.  A lot of really wonderful art can be purchased through eBay.  Be sure to, especially, look through the offerings under Self-Representing Artists.  Also scroll down through these sections:  Drawings > Contemporary, Mixed Media > Contemporary, Paintings > Contemporary, Prints > Contemporary and Sculpture, Carvings.

When I see hanging above someone's couch, a "masterpiece" purchased at a discount department store I cringe.  If that's what you want for the walls of your home and you find it enjoyable then that's fine.  But, I would much rather see more and more people collecting the original art work of living artists.  It is my hope that this guide may be of some small help in bringing that about.

Please spare two seconds to click the YES link at the end of this page if you find this guide interesting, useful, or informative. It makes all my effort feel worthwhile.  But, if you don't find this guide helpful please send me suggestions on how to make it better.  I plan on making periodic updates to the guide so your suggestions will be helpful to me.  Thanks for reading.