How to Identify Prints

Since its first publication in 1986, this comprehensive guide has established itself as the essential reference book for print and book collectors, dealers in prints and illustrated books, art librarians, art professors and students, and everyone interested in graphic art.

Is a particular print a woodcut, an etching, or a lithograph? Is it an original stipple engraving or a photogravure reproduction? Is the color printed or added by hand? Arranged in self-contained sections that can be consulted individually or as part of a larger research operation, this book helps identify accurately any printed image. Included are all the manual methods and also the mechanical processes that constitute the vast majority of printed images around us. In all, some ninety different techniques are described, both monochrome and color. Essential aspects of printing history and the printmaking craft receive full coverage, and examples are given of the features that reveal the type of print, such as varieties of line and tone. Of particular interest are the many illustrations of enlarged details showing the different appearance of various techniques under strong magnification. The one great change during the past twenty years has been the high-quality inkjet and laser prints that are now part of everyday life. How can one tell whether an attractive image is valuable in its own right or merely an appealing reproduction? As cheap printing becomes more sophisticated, it inevitably becomes harder to identify correctly an image of this kind. Bamber Gascoigne’s new observations in this area, added for this revised edition, will prove invaluable. 275 illustrations, 40 in color.