What Is An Antique Print? (2024)

An antique print is one that was made more than one hundred years ago.

At top antique fairs we have attended, such as the Grosvenor House Antiques Fair in London, items must usually be at least 100 years old to be classed as antique. However, original prints made before about 1950 may be considered to be antique if they were not mass produced. In contrast, vintage prints are usually considered to be those made between 1950 to 1980.

If you have an antique print that you'd like to know more about read about our antique print valuation and appraisal service here.

Tips for dating antique prints

Have you wondered when an antique print you've seen was made? Here are our tips for dating antique prints.
We would need to write a book to cover all the nuances, but these tips are a good starting point !

Years 1460 - 1700

• Prints mostly had thick ink lines as most were made with woodcuts or copper engravings
• This was the Renaissance era so prints were often about religion or classical subjects such as ancient Rome
• Not many prints from this era were colored
• The paper was usually very thick and uneven as it was hand made in small quantities

Here's an example showing a scene in ancient Rome. Click the picture to see more:

Years 1700 - early 1800s

• This was an era of exploration so prints of foreign animals and plants were popular. Many were amusingly unrealistic, as the artists had rarely seen real specimens
• Prints were mostly made from engraved copper plates. Prints had stronger plate marks as higher pressure was needed to print, and more detail as finer engraving lines were possible with improved tools
• The paper was usually thick and uneven as it was hand made
• Prints were often coloured by hand painting the colours

Here's an example of an engraving of a cougar from 1793. Click the picture to see more:

Years 1800 - 1850

• Prints of animals, plants and travels were popular and more realistic
• The paper tended to be thinner as it started to be machine-made
• Engravings were still common but more prints began to made by lithography
• Coloring was still mostly done by hand

Here's an example of a hand coloured steel engraving from 1843. It shows masked people in The Marquesas islands. Click the picture to see more:

Years Mid 1850 - 1900

• The most common print methods were lithography (speckled appearance) or steel plate engraving (much finer lines than copper)
• Plate marks were less common as lower printing pressure was needed
• Printed color became much more common from about 1860 onwards
• The paper tends to be smoother. One reason is that color lithography printing had been mastered and required smooth paper.

Here's an example of a chromolithograph of pears from the 1890s from John Wright's Fruit Grower's Guide. Click the picture to see more:

You can use the filters on this site to find prints by date.

If you have an antique print that you'd like to know more about read about our antique print valuation and appraisal service here.