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Ls Lowry Print

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Mags22 | 19:13 Fri 28th Jan 2022 | Arts & Literature
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My friend has just inherited an LS Lowry unsigned print ,161/850, framed - I think it’s probably value able,but she’s a bit doubtful. Does anyone have any ideas of its worth?
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It might be best here to think about the adverts that appear in Sunday newspaper supplements from firms offering 'limited edition' porcelain figures, teddy bears, medallions, etc, etc. They generally charge very high prices for their products on the basis that they're 'investments for the future'. (The Franklin Mint comes to mind here, as an example of...
20:26 Fri 28th Jan 2022
I don't know the answer but this website seems a good place to start:
https://www.lslowryfineart.co.uk/gallery-category/unsigned-limited-edition-prints/
It might be best here to think about the adverts that appear in Sunday newspaper supplements from firms offering 'limited edition' porcelain figures, teddy bears, medallions, etc, etc. They generally charge very high prices for their products on the basis that they're 'investments for the future'. (The Franklin Mint comes to mind here, as an example of just such a company).

Several publishers produce unsigned 'limited edition' paintings by famous artists on a similar basis. However the numbering on the prints has been appended by the publisher, rather than by the artist. (Indeed, many/most such prints are produced after the death of the artist). If you look at the high prices that such publishers charge for their prints, you might be tempted to think of them as 'valuable' but the only place that you'll see such high prices charged are on those publishers own websites (or possibly from a very optimistic seller on eBay). The actual sums that they can fetch anywhere else are usually far, far lower.

So it is with Lowry prints. A company called The Adam Collection Ltd had limited edition prints of his works produced (either by Cavendish Press or by an Austrian firm) in the 1970s, in print runs of 850. They simply numbered them themselves and then marketed them as 'investments'. Just like other types of so-called 'investments', that were sold by The Franklin Mint et al, they now turn up on the market quite often, with the sellers hoping to achieve high prices for them. However that doesn't mean that they're actually worth that much or that anyone will actually pay that much.

As an example, here's such a print being offered for £395:
https://www.lslowryfineart.co.uk/product/outside-the-mill-1930/
with loads more listed here
https://www.lslowryfineart.co.uk/gallery-category/unsigned-limited-edition-prints/
I certainly wouldn't pay that much and I doubt that any real collector would either. (In particularly wouldn't buy from a website where all of the prints are described as 'newly framed'. That suggests to me that the dealer has bought a job lot of old prints for a few quid each and then framed them. I also wouldn't buy from a trader who doesn't include the full postal address of the company on his website).

Your friend could try to sell the print on eBay for a similar sort of price but I'd be amazed if she actually got any takers for her offer. I've seen a similar 'limited edition' print languishing in a charity shop in Saxmundham for many months, despite the fact that Suffolk is 'antiques country', with dealers constantly looking for bargains in such shops. If they weren't prepared to pay the fiver being asked for it there, I doubt that they'd pay hundreds on eBay!
classic piece of good research there by Buenchico.

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