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Collecting Old Master Prints - Forum Auctions
COLLECTING OLD MASTER PRINTS
Collecting prints made by the Old Masters has a rich history of over 500 years of market precedent and stability, yet the formula for their enduring success is relatively simple.
In this short article I hope to explain why this is, as well as suggest some pointers to the new buyer or collector hoping to purchase their first master print.
In a world where we are exposed to hundreds of images every day, an original etching by Rembrandt or a woodcut by Albrecht Dürer, still manages to rise above trends and to feel as ethereal as when it was first created in the printmaker’s workshop. A truly great print can continue to recapture the viewer’s attention, maintaining an originality and intrigue that does not wane over time. At first, prints were largely religious, devotional objects and their size allowed the viewer to give themselves over to the intricacies of the image. Moreover, the images are by and large simply beautiful, both in technical execution and composition, and have for centuries been coveted like the finest gems.
Buying and selling masterworks by the most celebrated artists known to modern civilisation is something that collectors always find exciting. Nevertheless, before buying your first print you need to exercise some caution. The present art market can be bewildering, and unscrupulous sellers can be found offering deceptive forgeries, prints with underlying unexposed condition issues, and modern facsimiles, all distorting the intentions of the artist. These examples will inherently decrease in value when these issues are exposed, and not all are sold with the seller intending to deceive; knowledge takes
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) Self-Portrait in a Flat Cap and Embroidered Dress November 2019 – Sold for £16,900 (incl. buyer’s premium)
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) The Descent from the Cross: Second Plate October 2020 - Sold for £24,700 (incl. buyer’s premium)
time and patience and is not commonplace. As such, before buying it is important to find a supplier or auction house one can trust and with whom you can develop a working relationship. Few auction houses have specialist knowledge to sufficiently identify the value points for an Old Master print, but Forum Auctions in London is one of these specialists. Forum Auctions regularly has sales of Old Master prints from 1500 to the present day, and can competently guide new buyers towards securing the best work for their budget. Once you have identified your source for purchasing Old Master prints, you need to decide how much you are willing to spend. This can vary from the low thousands of pounds to several million for the rarest and finest prints. The most valuable Old Master print to come on the market in recent times was an impression of the first state of Rembrandt’s Christ Presented to the People (‘Ecce Homo’), which sold for £2,648,750 in 2018. However, many Old Master prints can be purchased from £2,000 to £20,000. While it is tempting to compare prices and find certain cheaper examples, the adage of “you get what you pay for” certainly applies to collecting Old Master prints.
The key areas you need to think about when deciding to buy, once you have decided on an image that intrigues, are the state (this encompasses the date of printing), the quality of printing and condition, and, to a degree, its rarity and provenance. The various states of a single print describe changes the artist made to the copper plate or woodblock, but can also include when a later restorer may have reworked worn areas to allow for further prints to be made from it; with each new print made, the printing plate or woodblock deteriorates. Essentially, the earliest states are the most valuable, and are closest to the artist’s true intentions. It was Rembrandt who first realised the possibilities of making numerous states of the same print, not only to show the development of an idea, but also to fuel the collecting market. The true collector would need all various states to complete a collection. Rembrandt, as an insatiable collector himself, was wise to this game. A good example of how various states of a single print can make drastically different prices at auction, can be seen with Rembrandt’s The Descent from the Cross: Large Plate. Forum Auctions sold an impression of the sixth state (of eight states) in September 2021 for £15,600. In October 2020, Forum Auctions sold a fourth state for £24,700. However, the highest price achieved for this print in recent times was for an example of the second state, which sold for 60,000 EUR at a German auction house in 2019.
Often, the dating of the print goes hand in hand with the identifying of which state it is, but this is not always as straightforward as one might expect. As well as having different states of the same print, you can also have impressions of the same state printed at different dates; sometimes as much as 300 years apart! The dating of an impression of a print, whether it was printed in the artist’s lifetime or many years later, can drastically alter the potential value. Some prints can be easily dated, for instance the 1511 text edition of Albrecht Durer’s Life of the Virgin is the only state of the print that features Latin text on the back. Thus, if there is Latin text on the back of your print, you know it is from 1511, as was the case with Joachim and the Angel sold through Forum Auctions in July 2021 for £5,200. However, there are examples of the original copper printing plates etched by Rembrandt being bought and sold in the 17th century all the way into the late 20th century. Different owners sometimes restored the printing plates by reworking the worn areas in order to create a new batch of prints, called later impressions, and these are normally not as valuable as an early printing.
In March 2021, Forum Auctions offered an early impression of Albrecht Dürer’s The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine, which through a combination of comparing wear in the block and dating the paper, was confirmed as having been printed around the year 1498; it subsequently sold for £9,100. Four months later in July of the same year, Forum offered a
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine.
later impression of the same print probably printed in the 1600s, with some deterioration visible in the block, and it sold for just under £1,000. Similarly, a first state impression of Rembrandt’s iconic Self-Portrait with Saskia which would have been printed in the artist’s own lifetime, was offered by Forum Auctions in September 2017 and sold for £23,400. In March 2021, Forum Auctions offered another impression of the same print, but the third state (of four) likely printed between 1790 and 1810, and it sold for £4,550.
Another significant area that determines the value of an Old Master print, and something that you always need to confirm before buying, is the quality of the printing and condition. An excellent early impression of a fine print that has water stains or has sections missing will inevitably reduce its value. Most of these issues are readily apparent and obvious, but the level of skill of modern paper restorers requires a careful eye to fully determine what has gone on with a print. In most cases where a small tear has been fixed, or a dirty print has been lightly washed in order to clean it, there will be minimal change in the value. The example of Albrecht Dürer’s The Standard Bearer offered
at Forum Auctions in March 2021 highlights the importance of condition. A deceptive repaired tear to the upper left corner, at first easily overlooked, meant the print was only able to achieve £2,860, probably less than half the price it could have made if it was without repairs.
One of the final details to consider is the provenance of the print. A print that has been in an important collection will be more sought after than a similar quality example without any esteemed previous owners. Like drawings, collectors have been marking Old Master prints with collectors’ marks since at least the 17th century, and often leave an ink stamp on the back of the sheet. Identifying these stamps is an area of study in its own right, and knowing that a revered collector owned a particular print can dramatically increase its value. The example of Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait in a Flat Cap and Embroidered Dress offered in November 2019 through Forum Auctions is a case in point. On the back of the print was a small stamp of the initials ‘H.W.’, which established that the print had once been in the collection of one Herman Weber, a respected buyer of Old Master prints based in Bonn in the early 19th century. The print ended up selling for £16,900 against a high estimate of £5,000, and it is without doubt the confidence provided from the provenance that helped it to achieve this price.
To conclude, from the inception of the printing press, the idea of disseminating transcendent beauty through printmaking has
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) The Standard Bearer March 2021 – Sold for £2,860 (incl. buyer’s premium)
inspired historic collections to this day. While new markets begin to emerge in the digital realm with the explosion of NFTs, the power of the printed line on paper still feels as fresh as when the impressions were pulled many centuries ago.
Richard Carroll is a specialist at Forum Auctions, London, where he values and sells Old Master prints and related works on paper. His recent discoveries of note include an overlooked St Eustace by Albrecht Dürer, previously thought to be a copy, and a forgotten album of over 40 original drawings by the British sculptor, Sir John Flaxman.
Email: r.carroll@forumauctions.co.uk
