Judging the Authenticity of Prints by The Masters:
by David Rudd Cycleback

Chapter 7 : Handmade Versus Photomechanical Prints

(c) cycleback 2003, 2005 all rights reserved

Prints can be divided into many different categories, including by they way that they are made, what materials are used, whether they are commercial or non-commercial and artistic styles. For this book, an essential category is whether prints are hand made or photomechanical. These two categories often distinguish a print from being original or reproduction. Hand made prints are made from printing plates who’s artistic design is created onto the plate by hand. An original Rembrandt engraving involved the famous artist literally using a hand held tool to carve the design into the steel plate. A wood-engraving was made by someone cutting the artistic design into a block of wood by hand. Photomechanical prints are the opposite of hand made prints. The design on the printing plate is through photographic reproduction, not by hand. Photomechanical prints are most commonly used for mass-production commercial purposes, including reprints of hand made prints. With notable exceptions, all 20th century and today’s commercial prints are photomechanical prints. This includes everything from the images on trading cards to cereal boxes, movie posters to magazines. These commercial prints involve the reproduction of an original design, whether it’s a painting, photograph, print or sketch. Hand made prints printed by or directly overseen and approved by the artist are commonly called “original prints” in the fine arts world. Most photomechanical reproductions, even if approved of by the artist, are not considered original. The concept of originality, with all its degrees and gray areas, is discussed more in a later chapter. cycleback.com................conceits main (c) david rudd cycleback, cyclback.com all rights reserved

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