James Gillray - Collecting

Collecting

In recent years Gillray's work has become very collectible. Prices had been climbing steadily since the 1970s, but the auction of the Draper Hill Collection at Phillips auctioneers in London in 2001 pushed prices to new highs: several key prints, including Fashionable Contrasts, fetching more than US$10,000. Since 2002, annual auctions of Caricatures at Bonhams in London, each of which included large selections of Gillray prints, have continued this trend. Escalating prices have also meant that good examples of major works by Gillray can be very hard to come by at any price. Unfortunately for the beginning collector this means that starting a collection now is far more difficult than thirty years ago, when a very good copy of Light expelling Darkness could be had for as little as US$250. A good impression of this print sold in 2006 for over US$9,000, while Fashionable Contrasts also sold in the same year for over US$20,000.

This dramatic increase in prices has also led to unscrupulous sellers attempting to pass off prints from the Bohn Edition as originals, and it can be difficult for those unfamiliar with these practices to tell the difference between a restrike (commonly called "a Bohn") and an original. The key indicators of a print coming from the Bohn Edition are (i) the presence of a number in the top, right-hand corner of the print (the number is most commonly in the image itself, but may be outside in the margin); (ii) the fact that the Bohn edition was issued without colouring; and (iii) the fact that the strikes for the main published volumes of the Bohn Edition were printed on both sides of the paper (the Bohn Edition of the so-called "Suppressed Plates" was, like the originals, printed on one side of the paper only). However, the fact that a print is single-sided does not mean that it is not a Bohn restrike: there are in existence many Bohns (for example, Light expelling Darkness) that bear a number, but which are printed on one side of the paper only. These single-sided numbered strikes are almost always printed on much higher quality paper than was used for the bound volumes, and the quality of the printing is usually much superior too, with more care having been taken to ensure a crisp impression. These impressions are believed to have been struck by Henry Bohn with a view to colouring them, and then selling them as high-quality single prints, in much the same way as the prints published in Gillray's lifetime. There are many example of such single-sided restrikes, both coloured and uncoloured. Since prices for Bohns are usually between one-tenth and one-twentieth of those for originals, unscrupulous sellers will go to great lengths to disguise the fact that a print is a Bohn. Some common methods include: (i) tortuously worded descriptions, which attempt to avoid disclosure of the fact the print is a restrike (although some sellers will just plain lie); (ii) if the number is outside the image, trimming the print to the very edges of the image; (iii) if the number is inside the image, carefully abrading the surface to obliterate the number; (iv) cutting strips of the image to remove the number; (v) laying the print to paper or framing it such that it is difficult to determine whether there is printing on the reverse; and (vi) adding colour.

Also recently the prices of the John Miller editions are rapidly increasing in value because they are affordable for collectors and is seen as a solid investment. They are seen as good alternative to the desirable originals of Mrs. Humphrey's print shop.