How much are Lionel Barrymore etchings worth?

Answer 1

Hi -

Some say Barrymore was an accomplished artist as well as actor. So, his art is quite beautiful (I have six of them) and is nice to collection. The fact he is an artist as well as an Oscar-winner, well, hat helps.

VALUE? There are many auctions based solely on celebrity items, you find these in Hollywood all of the time. The buyers will turn around and sell it in stores, etc. If you have someone who is buying purely on the star power and is going to buy up anything by them, you could get a good price one day, or totally screwed the next. As far as the ability to recognize how much his art is worth? I cut and pasted a portion of a posting from elsewhere. I will only include a part of it and the link as not to infringe on anyone's copyrights.

Etchings are done using a process where the artist uses a sharp needle an scratches into a metal plate to make the design. The scratches are then filled with ink and a piece of paper is then pressed against the plate and the ink transfers to the paper. This can be done multiple times, with each impression being an original print. Because the plate does deteriorate with each impression, etchings are rarely done in editions exceeding several hundreds and often far fewer, perhaps as few as a dozen. Note that the printed image is the reverse of the plate, so any signature or title would be backwards if it was made on the plate, unless the artist were to write it backwards, not a likely process. Most likely, any title or signature is done after the image is printed and done seperately for each print. So if you have an "original" etching, you would have one of the original impressions made from the plate. It is important to recognize that these are considered original works of art (such as a pen or pencil drawing of which there can be only one) even though there are multiple copies.

Now it is possible that you can make copies of an original etching using various printing techniques. Those would be called reproductions, and unlike the original printing can be done in editions of thousand or even millions with each one being identical. Since one of the things that determine the price of art is scarcity, reproductions of art have no real value. There is also the fact that the artist was not involved the process.

How to tell an original from a reproduction? Unfortunately the word "print" is used to describe both of them. Even more confusing is that many popular artists today will sign the prints of reproductions of their original paintings and they are sold as "prints signed by the artist". Aside from the fact that these prints are churned out by the thousands, no collector would consider these to be originals, and they have no real value aside from their decorative value....

https://www.dart.fine-art.com/aqd-asp-im_103889-buy-m.htm

Answer 2

I own four of his etchings and value them as family heirlooms but I have recently checked out eBay and see a number of his etchings for sale there and they are priced in the 5$ range. So I don't think they are all that valuable. But they are nice to look at.

Answer 3

what are Lionel Barrymore gold etching worth

Answer 4

from around $100 to $500

Answer 5

£5.00