Customer Reviews

How to Identify Prints, Second Edition

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Now in an updated and expanded second edition, How To Identify Prints: A Complete Guide To Manual And Mechanical Processes From Woodcut To Inkjet is a superb reference and self-teaching tool for discerning between manual prints, process prints, and screenprints/non-prints, whether the print in question is monochrome or color, and whether it is relief, intaglio, or planographic. 272 illustrations, 40 of which are in color, highlight the meticulous attention to detail in this excellent manual, which also covers essential aspects of printing history and the craft of printmaking. This new addition is revised with insights concerning how increasingly sophisticated yet inexpensive cheap printing processes such as quality inkjet and laser prints affect the process of identifying and evaluating printed images. A "must-read" for anyone collecting authentic prints or pursuing a career involving the identification of prints.

I almost said "for the beginning print lover," but even the pros might want occasional reminders about obscure processes.

This book displays an incredible number of processes and variations. Even within etching, there is standard intaglio process, relief etching, intaglio so deep it's amost relief, spit-biting or open-biting - well, a very long list. This gives an exacting look at the marks specific to each process, and gives good diagnostic descriptions. A special strength in this book is the differential diagnoses, the questions to ask that help distinguish two very similar kinds of marks. Every point made in the text is illustrated real samples, and that makes for a heck of a lot of illustrations.

I have almost no quibbles with this text. There are just a few minor points that Gascoigne could have brought out more clearly. First is that Japanese woodcuts are under-represented. It's a rich tradition with a number of distinguishing features: gradations of ink hand-placed on a block, occasional use of mica for luster, and occasional use of un-inked "blind" impressions to impress texture into the paper. Second is a mark that I think is unique to drypoint: the line is often asymmetric, crisp on one side and blurred on the other, capturing the asymmetry of the drypoint burr. The split drypoint line is more famous but, in my experience, less common. I've seen it only in the most aggressively worked drypoints, such as some by Picasso. Third is a feature of some dust-ground aquatints: that the white marks can sometimes form a connected mesh around the black dots, where a spirit ground always has a black ocean dotted with white islands. I know these are minor points, and I hope you see how few there are.

I'm a process nut. It's not the only way I enjoy prints, and not the way everyone enjoys them. For me, though, it really adds something to know how the maker's hand created each mark that I see. This isn't strictly a process book, and only accidentally a book of process history. It's a book about how a print looks, and seeing even more in the finest part of its looks. In the end, that's really the best reason to love a print.

//wiredweird

PS: A little while ago, I was given a very nice color print. It was done in mezzotint style, using burnishers to work from dark to light. Instead of a rocker-made ground, though, it had an aquatint ground. Color came from inking au poupee, dabbed on the plate. The giver was quite surprised that I read its story so precisely. Read this book, and you'll know just what I saw.

Back in print and updated in a new paperback edition is Bambar Gascoigne's classic How To Identify Prints, first published in 1986 and enjoying ongoing acclaim as an essential resource for any involved in identifying prints, whether they be woodcuts, lithos, or etchings. Some ninety techniques - manual and mechanical alike - are described to round out an accompanying history of prints. A lasting, classic work essential to any art library and many a general library reference collection.

First of all, this is an EXCELLENT book...perhaps the best book I've ever read claiming to help with identifying "things." I help my wife with her antiques business, and try to learn as much as I can across a very broad range of subjects. I've read books on furniture, clocks, silversmithing, jewelry, porcelains, etc. etc., so I'm comparing this book to many others I have read. I love prints, hence I purchased this book and find it truly useful to narrow down what a particular print is, and how it was printed. Once read, I now look at some prints with awe at the technical prowess of the artists and their amazing accomplishments. So why did I give this book 4 stars and not 5?

It's missing one chapter in my opinion: and this chapter should provide a brief overview of other "drawn" forms of art. Others may disagree, saying this book is about prints, and adding watercolors, pencil drawings, india ink, oils, etc. is out of scope. But a chapter aimed at the novice to help quickly discriminate a true watercolor from a good print of that watercolor would be valuable (to me at least). A case in point...I purchased what I thought was a print (at auction, it was sold as a print), but on closer inspection I "think" it's a watercolor. The overlapping brush stokes and uneven distribution of color seemingly caused by a brush appear to distinguish it from a print. None of the illustrations in the book "look" like this. Having a couple of illustrations showing what to look for in a watercolor would help. I don't know anything about the author, but if there's ever a new edition, including such a chapter would prompt me to purchase the update.

This one issue aside, I would totally recommend this book to anyone with any interest in the printed art form. Great book.

Bamber Gascoigne's "How to Identify Prints" is a comprehensive, yet detailed analysis of the various types of works on paper. As other reviews indicate below, it covers the entire field of works on paper. For appraisers, dealers and collectors, it is a "must have" for your reference library. As an appraiser, I agree with another review on the book that indicates that the book is a little light on woodblock prints. However, woodblock printing is complex enough to support its own books, especially when discussing Japanese Woodblock prints.

Even with the brevity of the woodblock section, this book is still the best overall print reference book I have seen. It uses a logical approach to educating the reader, and allows him or her to progressively expand his or her knowledge as they work through the book; it builds a foundation, and then adds to that foundation. I only wish I had discovered the book years ago when I was just beginning to learn about prints! For beginners to connoisseurs, this is a fabulous reference book.

This book is found in the printrooms of most galleries and print collectors as it is a precise and concisely written text which explains the complex processes of printmaking. It clarifies the sometimes baffling differences between printing families and the creative techniques involved in making a print such as the subtle visual difference between an etching and an engraving. The book is illustrated throughout to assist the reader to identify printing techniques, characteristics and attribution marks used in Old Master prints through to those made in contemporary times. This reference text would appeal to anyone fascinated by prints and provides a new vocabulary for those who want to know more about the interesting visual variations possible in the world of the print.