Art prints are commonly created and sold as a numbered piece in an edition.
Unlike paintings, art prints are by nature duplicated. The artist produces the image on a printing surface and then creates multiple copies of this image. This set of copies is known as an edition, which helps collectors and museums price, collect and catalog an artist's work.
What is an Edition?
An edition is simply set of prints made from the same plate or printing surface. This edition can be as large or as small as an artist wants, but is normally finite. For example, an artist may create a plate and then produce 25 prints from the same plate. Ideally, all these prints will look the same, and will be numbered 1 through 25.
Edition Size
Editions come in many sizes based on the artist's notoriety, the price desired for each print and, in the cases of well-known prints, the popularity of the image. Normally, an artist who is attempting to sell his image will create an edition of between 25 and 100 prints, although there is no hard and fast rule about this. With smaller editions of desirable prints, each print will sell for more money than if more prints were available, according to laws of supply and demand.
Open Editions
In some cases, an artist will produce an edition with no predetermined number of prints, known as an open edition. Because any number of prints can be made from one printing plate, these prints are not as in high demand as those made from a normal or limited edition. They are also usually printed on lower-quality, lighter weight paper and may be of lesser quality, especially later in the edition when the printing plate begins to degrade. Prints in an open edition are less desirable as well as less expensive.
What Happens after an Edition is Printed?
To avoid reproduction of a print after the edition is completed, the plate is normally defaced or destroyed by various means, including acid for lithography, scratching out an image for metal printing plates, or wholesale demolition for more fragile printing methods. This ensures that the number of prints produced by the artist is all that is ever made, allowing a definite value to be placed on the prints.
