Print fair  Attended the Washington International Print Fair today in Rosslyn. Parked at the East Falls Church Metro station and rode the train to avoid any possible parking hassles. There were some beautiful prints on display, and at the fair it's possible to go through stacks of valuable prints, spending as much time as you want admiring them. That's all I could afford to do, as most were worth several hundred dollars into the several thousand. I particularly liked the prints of a couple of artists who were new to me that were somewhat affordable: Asa Cheffetz and Gordon Grant. The Cheffetz prints were high contrast woodblock prints of rural scenes that were very detailed. Also saw several Ernest Roth prints that I loved. They are affordable, in the $350-400 range, and sitting here looking at images online I'm tempted to return to the show tomorrow and purchase one. I'd settle for a good reproduction, but there don't seem to be many available. Roth's prints are less expensive than they might be had he numbered each print. The dealers did not know how many prints were made, so it's anybody's guess whether there are 10 or 100.

There's a physical limit to the number of good prints that can be made from a plate, so the edition is limited but unknown. Collectors are very concerned about the edition number as it affects the value of a print. I could care less about the numbers; I'm only concerned about the quality of the print.
posted by Bruce Wright at 8:26 PM #