Are lithographs usually sold in pairs or sets?

Sets are unusually normal in this category. Pairs appear in around a tenth of titles and fours in a smaller share again, and the archive runs to sixes, nines, twelves and a set of twenty-four framed lithographs of wild game. One collection of about twenty large mosaic prints has passed through as a single lot. Singles are still the commonest listing, but a group is nothing out of the ordinary.

What does the date on a lithograph listing mean?

Read it as the dealer's shorthand. The dated field spans 1800 to 1960, and 118 of 229 listings carry a clean year, but the single commonest label isn't a year at all: 43 say only "19th Century" and 23 only "Victorian". Where years are given they cluster twice, in the mid-to-late 1800s and again in the mid-20th century. Titles sometimes quote a publication year, 1821 or 1857 for instance, that sits inside a vaguer dated field.

Why do so many listings mention Vanity Fair?

The magazine's full-page caricature portraits form a category of their own, and 18 titles carry the name. They come as chromolithographs, often double-page, often tagged Spy or Men of the Day. They're a current-shelf phenomenon. They make up a real slice of stock now listed on Sellingantiques against effectively none of the sold record.

How often are these prints signed or numbered?

Not often. Only 11 titles mention a signature, and edition numbers appear a handful of times, phrased as 1/300, one of 500 or a stated edition size of thirty. A trial proof shows up once in the sample. Where signatures and editions do appear, it's generally on 20th-century artist sheets rather than the Victorian material.

Do lithographs come framed?

Some do. "Framed" appears in about a tenth of titles, with a few describing original frames by a named framing firm, others later gilt frames or gilt gesso. The rest are described unframed or the frame simply goes unmentioned in the title.

Which unusual forms turn up in this category?

A Regency reverse lithograph printed on glass, an optical illusion sheet, a lithograph with pastel worked over the printing, and a double-sided sheet printed on both faces have all passed through. Origins stray from Britain too. French subjects are the commonest non-British group, and the record holds a sheet from the House of Wentzel at Wissembourg, an Irish modernist print, and two American political prints of 1877 and 1882.

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Antique Lithographs

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A lithograph is a print pulled from a drawn image on stone or plate, the picture-printing method of the 19th century, used for topographical views, natural history plates, caricature and advertising.