M.C. Escher Orginals

Escher Originals

It is critical to understand the difference between an original print and a reproduction if one is to understand why original Escher prints are so treasured. The concept of a reproduction is relatively easy to understand: it is a copy made by photographing an original artwork and printing its image into a book or as a poster reproduction. But what is an original? That requires a longer answer. The defining characteristic of an original print is that it must be printed directly from the artist’s hand-made printing block or plate. There are many techniques in printmaking, but in every case an original must be printed directly from the block or plate that the artists themselves create. If the artist makes the printing plate, be it by drawing an image on a lithographic stone, cutting into a woodblock, or working directly with a metal plate; and if that plate is then printed, the result is an original print which can have aesthetic and historic significance as well as real value among collectors and in the international art market. A reproduction, no matter how attractive it may be, has no such value.

Escher Signed and numbered original prints

Escher's general method was to seldom sign smaller and medium-format woodcuts and to almost always sign larger major prints. Lithographs and mezzotints were usually, but not always, signed and numbered, whereas major woodcuts were generally signed but never numbered. Larger woodcut prints frequently bear Escher's notation 'eigen druk,' which roughly translates as ‘printed by myself,' though the wording is infinitely more elegant in the original Dutch. Virtually all of Escher’s prints have his MCE monogram and the date of the print’s completion in Roman numerals within the image.

Escher Original Prints versus Reproductions

Every example of an original print is necessarily identical in size to every other print created from the same block, stone, or plate. These originals have frequently been photographed and reproduced in books and posters, just as painters’ canvases have been photographically reproduced. As we have seen, in Escher’s work only the woodblock prints, lithographs, and mezzotints created directly from the artist’s blocks, stones, and plates are considered original prints and of value.