I happen to have stumbled on a small stash of early lithographs, printed by Barbara and myself sometime in the 1980s. Because of printing issues, only 65 copies were ever made, and in some tough runs, we only got 10 or 15 prints out of the run.
These lithos are all handmade and pencil signed and numbered, and are in such small quantity that we can only fill a few orders as they come in. Most of these are almost entirely sold out years ago, and only a few remain.
Earliest here gets first choice, but only one copy of each image is available per customer, so nobody controls the market.
This is not printed on a computer printer. It is a true litho process, and the printing was a huge effort which I certainly couldn’t duplicate today. It was truly exhausting and difficult, compared to the ease by which a print — even a full-color print — can be produced at the touch of a button or the click of a mouse.
We got real lucky on the printing, and the 40 year old printing press held up wonderfully well. The prints were flawless and clear, cleanly printed and brightly colored where there was color, although we did not have an easy time making color printing at that time — each color was a separate run on top of the other colors already printed. It’s not that complicated, once you see how it’s done, but it’s labor-intense and many flawed copies that have to be destroyed.
Prices range from $50 to $100 for these prints, allowing resellers to add a gallery profit onto the wholesale prices for these prints.
That’s it for the moment, thanks for taking the time to look, and maybe to acquire one or more of them for your art collection.
See You At The Top!!!
gorby