[Baren]: The mailing list / discussion forum for woodblock printmaking. Baren Digest Friday, 13 March 1998 Volume 02 : Number 094 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: David Bull Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 09:53:19 +0900 Subject: [Baren 477] Modern Chinese prints The trail from Chinese printing techniques is leading on ... I was browsing through some of the print/book shops downtown the other day, and noticed on the sales counter of one of them, a pamphlet marked 'Collection of Modern Chinese Woodblock Prints'. It was a kind of sales catalogue showing illustrations of a group of prints from China. (To step back a moment, I should relate that when I was passing through Hong Kong about 14 years ago, I browsed through some book shops there, and saw any number of similar woodblock prints. These were stacked here and there, all priced very cheaply. I didn't buy any of them, because at the time I was too much of a snob ... 'We who are working in this wonderfully precise and sophisticated Japanese style aren't interested in this 'rough' crude stuff ...') And now here I find this catalogue with a bunch of these interesting prints listed. Great! Now's the chance to pick up a few of them. So I turned to the back of the catalogue where there was a price list keyed to the illustrations. Oops! Item #1: limited edition of 100: $1400.00 each Item #2: limited edition of 100: $1200.00 Item #16: limited edition of 30: $600.00 Set #1 (eight prints): limited edition of 50: $6000.00 etc. etc. etc. It seems as though our Chinese friends are learning quickly about the free market system ... Dave ------------------------------ End of Baren Digest V2 #94 **************************