Posted May 23, 2002

Gordon's Print Prices

Gordon's Print Price Annual 2002 contains over 50,000 price results of prints by nearly 9,000 artists that sold at auction worldwide during the year 2001. Results include records for Old Master, Modern, and Contemporary fine prints; decorative, historical, botanical, topographical, and Japanese prints; vintage, fine art, and film posters; illustrated books, livres d'artiste (artist books), books and periodicals with original graphics; Picasso ceramics; and more.

Gordon's is superior to other art price resources that include print auction records for a number of reasons. Gordon's entries contain technical print-collecting data not found in other references like quality of images' impressions, paper types, condition information, and margin details (as described in auction catalogues). Titles of prints are translated into the language of the catalogue raisonne for many major artists. Gordon's contains an extensive print reference book bibliography, and its editorial staff corrects incorrect titles, states, catalogue raisonne numbers, and other errors that appear in auction catalogue listings. Buy-ins (prints that failed to sell) are also included as are records for prints in all price ranges (no minimum price cut-offs). Other art price companies occasionally attempt to publish print price references that cost less, but as the old adage goes, you get what you pay for.

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Gordon's Print Price Annual 2002-1986, 2 CD-ROM Set is the best computer print price reference available. It contains sixteen years of international print auction records totaling nearly 650,000 entries by over 26,000 artists. In addition to everything contained in Gordon's print price books, also included on the CD-ROM are older print prices dating from the turn-of-the-century to 1985; a trilingual print lexicon in English, French, and German; and a worldwide directory of auction houses, print dealers, and photography dealers. For the first time, over 7,000 images of prints have been included.

Gordon's CD-ROMs are fast and easy to use. Current editions automatically de-install previous versions and then self-install. They work just fine on both PC and Macintosh (with PC emulating software installed) platforms.

Gordon's Print Price Annual International 2002 Edition edited by Sara Collins, Gordon's Art Reference, Inc., Phoenix, 2002, hardbound, 1870 pages, 8 1/2 by 11 inches, $245.

Gordon's Print Price Annual International 2002-1986, 2 CD-ROM Set edited by Sara Collins, Gordon's Art Reference, Inc., Phoenix, 2002, $595 for the initial subscription, $295 for subsequent annual updates.

Both book and CD-ROM set are available from Gordon's Art Reference, Inc., 306 West Coronado Road, Phoenix, AZ 85003-1147 or call 1-800-892-4622 or visit the Gordon's Art Reference website.

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Art Sales Index

Art Sales Index, CD-ROM 2002 contains twelve years and 1.4 million sales results for works of art by 155,000 artists that sold at auction internationally between January 1990 and March 2002. These include results for oil paintings, sculptures, prints, miniatures, photographs, and works on paper such as watercolors and drawings. A typical entry lists the artist's name, birth and death dates, nationality, title of the art, dimensions in centimeters and inches, signature and date information, date of the auction, name and location of the auction house, lot number of the art in the sale, and presale estimates in the currency of the country where the auction house is located. Hammer prices are given in dollars and pounds for all works of art including paintings, works on paper, drawings, miniatures, photographs, and sculptures.

Art searches can be made using a variety of criteria including by artist name, birth and/or death dates, nationality, century, title or description of a work of art, medium, dimensions, date painted, auctioneer, date of sale, lot number and whether illustrated, medium, technique, or hammer price in Pounds, Dollars or local currency. The CD ROM also contains contact information for auction houses, including websites, as well as the option to click directly to websites for additional information (assuming that you're online at the time).

The ASI 2002 CD-ROM is improved over previous versions with new features so that relevant price results can be located more quickly and easily. The CD's new search engine is compatible with Windows operating systems including Windows XP, Millenium, 2000, 98 and 95. Sorry Macintosh users-- the CD won't work for you, even if you have PC emulating programs installed on your computers.

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Art Sales Index, the oldest and one of the most respected publishers of art price data in the business, also maintains a researchable online art price database containing over 2.5 million price records for works of art by over 200,000 artists that have sold at international auctions since 1950. The database includes variant spellings of artist names, resulting in over 260,000 total artist name entries. For example, the spellings Mihail, Michail, Michel, Michael or Mikael Chemiakin all point to the same artist-- Mikhail Chemiakin. An additional plus is that images of works of art are now being added to the database. Visit the Art Sales Index database website for more information.

Art Sales Index, CD-ROM, 2002 edited by Duncan Hislop. Art Sales Index Ltd., Egham, Surrey, England, 2002. Initial subscription, $375; subsequent annual updates, $135.

The Art Sales Index online art price database offers a variety of subscription options ranging from $600 per year for unlimited usage to pay-per-view options starting as low as $1.50 for one page of listings which may contain as many as eight individual auction results.