After a while limited editions dont seem to mean anything to me - which is a shame. But long before the days of giclee and decent quality self published prints, there were local places who used to colour photocopy almost anything -we even saw a "signed" "Lenkovitch" photocopy in a plastic frame that had been in a house fire, brought to us to give to our restorer in the hope that this priceless A4 artifact could be redeemed.
Well, in these days, when the definition of honesty (as plucked from tony blair's magic hat) is grassing somebody up, we still thought long and hard whether to tell the Lenkovitch Foundation (who had always been very good to us) in the end we went to the local alleged fine art gallery that was selling them, and said "this is not on - give this customer her money back or we mention this to the appropriate people".
Someone had paid £300 for an A4 photocopy, with a BIRO signature purporting to be that of Lenkovitch, and numbered 2 out of 100
It came down to a case of every time we got one of these in for framing, we'd tactfully mention to the customer that it was a fake. Then we have the gallery owner up whining and dripping and screaming under the auumption that "we are in the same game" - oh no, Nrs, we are not in the same game. you may think the world owes you a living, but you are destroying the prints market.
And Jack vettriano images- whats that about? It cost more to colour photocopy a jack vettriano card than it does to buy one retail, yet they still copy them and sell them, likewise John Miller.
You have to laugh, else you cry.
Its a shame, but a print is just a print these days, and you get more "transparency" and straightforward honesty from most self publishing local artists than they get credit for when it comes to their limited editions. I take my hat off to them for playing the game straight.
Like John in Ireland, most of the people round here seem to prefer an affordable original than a limited edition these days - luckily in west cornwall, everyone seems to have a paintbox in their pocket, and every home you go into has plenty of affordable originals.
A bit more help and clarity from the publishers wouldn't go amiss either, I just realised whilst writing this, that we haven't ordered any signed limited editions (other than a handful) from the big publishers in a couple of years. And most of our customers certainly are not minded to pay extra for them compared to an open edition.
