Nevertheless, collecting as an investment is not advocated. If the
collector is not moved by the delight he gets from the æsthetic
qualities of the prints, he had far better leave them entirely alone.
Nothing but the passion of real enthusiasm and perception will enable
him to select the best works; and without this selection his prints are
not likely to be of much ultimate value. When, however, the collector
makes his acquisitions out of pure love for their beauty, it is right
and prudent that he should consider their value in later years. Such a
collector need have no fear; what was to him a delight and a
dissipation will probably in the end prove to his heirs an investment of
profit.
FORGERIES.
The collector must be constantly on his guard against reprints,
forgeries, and reproductions. These are not as common as some writers
believe; but they exist.
Reprints are impressions made at a time so long after the original
edition that they have not the original colouring. The register of such
prints is generally faulty, and the lines are not sharp. So long as the
blocks are in existence these reprints are possible. Early reprints are
merely late editions of the originals, and are not objectionable if the
blocks have not become worn; but late ones are undesirable. A print made
to-day from the original blocks of Harunobu, did they exist, would have
no value.
Forgeries are works produced in the style and over the signature of some
famous artist. Since they have no prototype among the artist's real
works, they present difficulties of their own; there is no genuine copy
of the same print with which to compare them. They are very rare; their
chief occurrence is in the cases of Harunobu and Utamaro.
Reproductions are prints made from new blocks cut in imitation of the
original ones. For unknown reasons a second edition of certain prints
sometimes was made very shortly after the first, from re-cut blocks.
These prints have no necessary difference in beauty or value from those
of the first edition. But such cases are few. Far commoner are the
reproductions proper--most of them copies made within the last
twenty-five years, sometimes with fraudulent intent, and sometimes
merely as honest commercial copies. In either case, they may be used
fraudulently by a present owner.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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