CLEARING UP THE CONFUSION ABOUT PRINTS - ORIGINAL PRINTS, REPRODUCTIONS, LIMITED EDITION PRINTS, AND THEIR COMPARATIVE DOLLAR VALUES

The two key words are `prints', and `reproductions'. The words are used interchangeably, and should not be.
A print is original, from some kind of hand-made plate that the artist has worked on, inked, and printed. A reproduction, mistakenly often called a print, is a factory produced likeness of an original work, and that original work can even be an original print.

Both original prints and reproductions can be limited in number ( a limited edition ) which means only so many are done and then the plates are destroyed. Original print runs are usually smaller because the plates or stencils often wear out. Reproductions often run into the hundreds and thousands.
 

Original prints basically include the following:

1. Itaglio - Lines that are scratched in on a plate of metal or other material, take the ink (come on up and see my etchings).
2. Relief - The raised areas on a potato, wood, or lino plate take the ink.
3. Lithograph - Grease pencilled in areas take the ink on a plate that used to be stone but can now be other materials as well.
4. Silkscreen and Stencil - Ink passes through the cut out parts. Photographs can be silk screened.
5. Embossing - Cut away areas on the plate cause raised surfaces on the paper.
6. Monoprints - A smooth surface such as glass is painted or inked on and one print is pressed off of it.

There are many variations and combinations of all of these methods of printmaking.
When it comes to reproductions, a Lithographic process can be used where the photograph of the original work is put on plates and printed using high quality inks and rag (or plain ink and paper, which is less expensive), on a mechanical press. You may be getting a high quality reproduction, but it will always remain just that... it will never become an original print.

I have heard people give price as an excuse for buying reproductions instead of original prints. Yet I know that certain high quality, lithographic reproductions cost a lot more than many good artist's prints.

A reproduction will not genuinely appreciate in value beyond the cost of the paper itself, unless it becomes rare as in the case of some stamps, coins, and hockey cards. The greater the number, the less the chance of appreciation.

Original prints however, have both a current value, that of having the vitality of a hand done piece of art, and the potential to appreciate. Blackwood's intaglio prints and Walter Phillip's wood-block prints are fine examples of these.

If you look very closely, you will see evidences of personality in the original prints, such as depressions in the paper and thin layering of inks. The inks on reproductions are very smooth although gold leafing and embossing is often incorporated.