Reading an edition: what the numbers on a print mean

Every print we sell carries its edition details in the description, and most carry them in pencil in the lower margin. Here is how to read them.

12/150. The print is number twelve of an edition of one hundred and fifty. The second number is what matters for scarcity; the first is the order it was signed in, which affects value less than people think. An edition of 50 is scarcer than an edition of 300 by the same artist in the same year.

AP, or artist's proof. A small number of impressions, usually ten percent of the edition, set aside for the artist. They are the same print. Collectors sometimes pay a little more for them because there are fewer; the artist sometimes kept the best ones.

HC, hors commerce. "Not for trade": impressions made for the publisher's use, exhibitions, or the printer. Same image, small number.

PP, printer's proof. The printer's own copies. BAT, bon à tirer, is the single proof the artist approved before the run; there is one, and it is the most interesting sheet of the edition.

Signed and numbered means the artist signed it by hand. Plate signed means the signature is part of the printed image, which is a different thing and priced differently. Our descriptions say which, every time.

Serigraph, lithograph, giclée, etching. These are ways of making a print, not grades of quality. A serigraph (silkscreen) pushes ink through a screen, one colour at a time; a lithograph draws on stone or plate; an etching bites lines into metal; a giclée is an archival inkjet print, often used by living artists for editions of their paintings. What matters is whether the artist made or supervised it, and whether it was published as an edition, which is what "limited edition" means on our site.

Every print on Robinhood Gallery comes with a letter of authenticity. If a detail in a description is unclear, write to us; we have the work in the room and can photograph the margin.