Category: Print Terminology

What is a Giclee Print and How Does it Fit into the Art World? Buyers Beware!

Posted on by Katia Baizan

Giclee art, giclee prints and giclee paintings are all the rage these days. They are, however, not always adequately represented. We will give you greater insight in this article about the intricacies of an industry that has begun to often mislead the public.

First what does giclee mean? Giclee is a modern printing technique that is used almost exclusively in creating a facsimile, a reproduction. The word “giclee” is from the French word for spittle, as the printer spits in a spraying fashion the colors being reproduced onto paper or canvas. It is not a very pretty word in French as it also refers to ejaculation and is therefore not very popular in France in trying to sell one’s art as you can imagine.

The giclee printing technique uses a fancy printer which is not cheap making it mostly unavailable to the general public. The giclee image is generally of better quality than what you can obtain from your laser or inkjet printer. You may have seen giclee printing services at your local art store or online. These services will offer, on submission a high quality digital picture, the option to print that very image onto paper or canvas of varying sizes. You can order as many as you like and they will all look alike. The giglee printing company may enhance some colors for you and will keep your digital image on file for you to order more reproductions in the future. The set up cost is high enough to eliminate the general public and reserve the technique to artists, galleries, framing shops and small to large businesses. You do not just print one giclee as it would not make good business sense.

Giclees are offered throughout the art world today as real works of art and are often signed and numbered by the artist. Their appeal is in the perceived reasonable price and accessibility, they are nonetheless just copies costing very little in production. Philosophically art becomes art when the artist gives it life. If the artist wishes to distribute cheap versions of his or hers original work of art by using giclee then that is legitimate. There are more questionable circumstances though.

Giclee prints and giclee paintings are more and more often offered as the “real” thing. You will find them listed as “Original Giclee Painting” or “Original Giclee Art” which is very misleading. It has been our personal experience as dealers of original art that the public understand giclees to be original paintings or original art. Original art is unique in scope, it is not reproduced in any way and is not a knock-off of an original painting. Therefore Buyers Beware: when you buy a giclee you are just buying a fancy photocopy.

MapsandArt.com is your online art, map and print store in which you can:

LEARN about engravings, etchings and antique art in general by visiting the REFERENCE CENTER on our website COMPARE thousands of original works of art on paper by viewing products and zooming in with our magnifying tool. SHOP for original art, old maps and antique prints at our convenient ecommerce store.

We have thousands of antique prints, old maps and original art on paper for sale, visit our website at http://www.mapsandart.com.

What is the Difference between Antique and Vintage?

Posted on by Katia Baizan

Antiques are items that were manufactured over 100 years ago. Used items which are less than 100 years are considered vintage.

This very simple definition can create much controversy among antique dealers, collectors and even wine drinkers! There is only one official definition of antiques in the United-States from US Customs in the Smoot-Hawley act of 1930. It basically says that an antique must be over 100 years old to be called an antique. In Europe and indeed in many other countries around the world there are many more laws governing antiques which help to define the subject. The US lacks such a base and this explains why there are such a variety in quality of “Antique” stores and malls around the country.

An antique store in France (Antiquites) will have to be operated by a state approved professional that has undergone appropriate studies in art, history and valuation. Those that do not have this training sell in stores or fairs called “Brocantes” which must hold a “Livre de Police” or Police Book in which items that are bought and sold are listed to fight against theft. All others can sell at the “puces” or flea markets where no legal mention of authenticity can be maintained.

Such safeguards do not generally exist in the US so the market for antiques is a wild place where dealers can use the word antique to describe items from the 1940s or even sell reproductions under dubious terminology such as Antique Chest circa 1940s. Such terms help increase the value in the eye of the buyer but nonetheless it is only a used chest (unless it was made from a desired designer or manufacturer).

Using the word “Antique” can up the price on a very simple object. Keep this argument in mind, it will offer you more perspective on price and value.

Now vintage is even trickier as there is no institution such as the US customs to define it. Vintage is the term commonly used by people in the antique world to define objects that have some age and are as one says “of a particular vintage”. We would define a chest of drawers from the 1930s as being vintage.

Now wine drinkers are not very happy with the use of the word vintage for anything else than defining the age of wines. However common usage has applied the word to the world of antiques and collectibles for over a century now in the US. Quite respectable really.

MapsandArt.com is your online art, map and print store in which you can:

LEARN about engravings, etchings and antique art in general by visiting the INFO CENTER on our website COMPARE thousands of original works of art on paper by viewing products and zooming in with our magnifying tool. SHOP for original art, old maps and antique prints at our convenient ecommerce store.

We have thousands of antique prints, old maps and original art on paper for sale, visit our website at http://www.mapsandart.com.