Lithographs

Interesting question. I just asked a friend who is a printer and he said that the image quality of the lithograph is better, the darkness of the black can not be beaten.

Then I told him the prices you quoted, and asked if you could tell the difference from the other side of the room, and at a difference in cost of £155, he thought probably not.

Here is a moderately useful link I found.

http://www.black-art-prints.com/buy-black-art.html

I looked, as I am sure you did for the specific answer to your question, and I could not find it. One reason is probably as the places who sell lithographs have it in their interest to not say that a poster is mostly as good, unless you are looking closely, and for a lot less money.

It is also worth looking at the size of image you want. If you have a big room, and will look at the the image from a long distance away, then the poster is probably OK. If you will have it in a small room, and look at if from close up, then the lithograph may be a good option.

Lithographs are sold as being collectable, and for artists who's work is exhibited in galleries, then they are, but for a record sleeve, I don't think it is the same. More will be printed, and I doubt that they will retain their value as with an artist. I would suggest having an Ebay search for lithograph, under both 'art' and 'music' categories.

It is also worth bearing in mind framing, I presume the lithograph comes framed. The poster is presume is not framed at £5.

Personally I would be tempted to buy the poster, and either get it nicely mounted, or buy a good frame.

I have a couple of posters like this, one from the CD stand at an Underworld gig, when they didn't have £1 change, and I said could I have a poster instead, and one a film poster (Peter Greenaway 'Drowning by Numbers' - £5) block mounted on a beveled board.

I also have a (fairly) original artwork by Tomato made from a architects printer of fax artworks, used partly as the source material for Underworld's 'Second Toughest in the Infants'. It is 11 by 3 1/2 foot, pretty big, framed, and cost several hundred pounds, almost certainly not worth it for an investment, but definitely worth it to me.

I do have a similar decision to make as I would like to get a poster of the Led Zeppelin 'Avacado' poster from 1969 at Wolfgangs Vault http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/

$825 for a first edition poster signed by the artist, down to $35 for a fourth edition poster with a small watermark. I suspect the latter. The mug and T-shirt I already have, they are very nice.

I hope that helps.

Thanks for the great reply Jamie. That is really useful.

Wayne

Please let us know which way you choose to go. It does look like the Led Zeppelin print is a bit more exclusive than many other rock lithographs, it also looks like it could be hard to find now.

Shepard Fairey lithographs might also be worth looking for if you are tempted by other work by the cover artist, the image he reworked for the 'Mothership' cover is called 'War is Over'.

Definitely less collectable, if you want a Led Zeppelin desktop background for your PC, I made this one a while ago - http://www.jamielochhead.co.uk/lzscn3.html