Let's talk Prints Originals - Reproductions - Colored
This is the most personal part of the Print Room. Selecting the prints you want in your room. Historically and purely speaking, the only color in a print room is the color of the walls. For a true Print Room, we urge you to use black & white prints against color. We always recommend earth tones in blues, terracottas, yellows and greens for those walls.
Original Prints
When referencing an 'original' print, that usually means they were hand printed prior to the early part of the 1900's. These prints are no longer in production. They must be collected individually. They are also have the most diverse subject matters and are individually very different. A Reproduction
Reproduction black & white prints are copies of old prints. They can be purchased continually today and are generally mass produced. Black & White
We offer a wide array of fine reproduction black & white prints. Why black & white? We feel that it is the most striking, authentic and beautiful rendition true to the origins of the lost art. BUT, there is another reason. Many suitable traditional and reproduction prints are hand colored. Hand colored is a problem. You see, the manner in which prints are adhered to the wall is to actually wet the paper. When that is done, the hand colors, the inks... bleed. It's a mess.
Colored
Here is the fact. Printing methods have changed since Print Rooms began in 1750. Four color process prints won't bleed, but many of the subjects are not suitable for a Print Room in subject and quality. You certainly don't want to use inferior prints or poster quality if you are going to all this trouble to put up a Print Room. HOWEVER, In our travels, we have found some very high quality reproduction colored prints we can recommend that are suitable for a Print Room. You will find colored prints in our online Print selection that are suitable for use in a Print Room.
Where to find Prints
No, we are NOT the only source for prints, far from it. You can collect your own prints, just as they did in the 18th century. Original prints can be gotten quite easily in Europe and not easily in the United States and Canada. No matter where you are, look in these places:
-Ebay to the antique prints section -Look at Flea Markets -Look at your Frame Shops or Art and Print Galleries -Your Grandmother's Attic -Old books - tear them apart for their prints -In addition to the prints in our on-line store, we have inventory and sources of original (antique) prints. Since original prints are one of a kind, they are shown by request per Print Room.
What NOT to do I will urge you quite strongly not to find prints and copy them on a copy machine. I have found that prints that were copied tend to bleed or fuzz up over time as the copy ink is not meant to last forever, fine art print ink is. It is also difficult to make copies on good quality paper. If you can figure out a way to do this to your satisfication, go ahead. However, it seems as though you are spending an awful lot of time and money which will end up in an inferior overall look.
When you see the quality of Print Room when good products are used, it is truly breath taking.