Our current father-son print sale by John Paul and Paul Caponigro incorporates a rather strange twist on the idea of limited editions. For the one week of the sale—this week—there's no limit placed on the number of orders, and every order we receive will be filled. However many are sold is how many will be made. But, as of 9 p.m. on Friday (Eastern U.S. time), the sales will close. At that point, the number of prints will become fixed. John Paul will number all of the prints—and that will then be the edition.
So if, say, 62 prints are sold, then the edition will be limited to 62. If 113 are sold, then the edition will be limited to 113. (Plus a few artists' proofs.)
It's a rather strange situation, I think—when you're buying the print, it's not part of a limited edition; but by the time you receive it, it will be.
I have no idea what this really signifies, I have to admit. And yet I kinda like it. It's almost as if it's democratic and exclusive, at the same time....
Mike
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Featured Comments from:
Jeremy Daalder (partial comment): "It's generally called a Timed Release. Quite common in the art reproduction (a.k.a. Giclée) market. Can be quite an effective sales technique, and indeed a good balance between accessibility whilst still having some element of a limit and exclusivity."
Paul Bass: "Coincidentally,I attended a slideshow/talk by Paul Caponigro last night at the Thomaston [Maine —Ed.] Public Library. A warm, unassuming man, he was thoroughly engaging, and very funny. 'Frosted Window' was one of the prints he showed last night, in another nice bit of TOP coincidence. If I had my way, we'd still be sitting there, looking at pictures. It was a great evening. My head is still spinning."
