About Certificate of Authenticity

Why Certificate of Authenticity is important for Limited Edition Prints

A Certificate of Authenticity tells the story behind a Limited Edition, this article is going to explain what information are typically presented and how to make the limited edition traceable, especially for fine art prints.

What to look at when investing Limited Editions

Limited Editions and Fine Art prints will have all the information about the artwork, photography and fine art prints. As a buyer, you would also like to know the artwork’s edition information as completed as possible to help you make the decision. For example:

• • The Edition Number
  • The total no. of the edition
  • The Artist’s / Creator’s name
  • The Artwork’s title / descriptions
  • and more….

Certificate of Authenticity will help you to obtain such information

In most cases, you can find the information in the artist’s website. However, information presented on the website might not in full details.  A proper limited edition should come with a Certificate of Authenticity. In additional to the title and descriptions, it will tell you the size, producer such as print lab, medium, and material used.

It is a more than a certificate, it is a complete traceable system

Within the edition, the maximum number of art is limited. In general, a limited edition should be around 10, and some might go over 30. However, an edition of 10 will be more valuable than a similar work from an edition of 50. Please keep notes prints more than 100 are often considered as mass reproductions items, rather than Fine Art prints.

Each number should be one and only within the entire edition. For example 1/10, 2/10, 3/10…. 10/10. All edition should be traceable, buyer can easily to check and verify the authentic, obtain the necessary information by searching with a number. In SpectrArt, we created multi-level logical check points to make sure no duplication can be exist, in other words, only a unique set of information can go into the database.

Holographic Seals with serial number gives additional protection

A pair of holographic seals (Gold and Silver) with identical serial numbers are used. The pair of gold and silver holographic seals will be applied to the certificate and back of the print respectively. The seals are designed for single use to provide extra level of security. Once applied, the seals cannot be easily removed or they will be broken.

The Limited Edition Records Library

SpectrArt website’s Limited Edition Records Library provides a searchable feature for users to look up the information online 24/7. The library accept the “exact” search to make the searching simple.

By entering the serial number to the search box, the limited edition information together with the image of the certificate will display instantly. Click on the small certificate image to get the light box view.

To help making decisions on investing limited editions

The more information you can get, the more easy for you to make decision when buying limited edition fine art prints. You can further ask the gallery or the shop selling the limited edition prints for more information. In fact, able to obtain artworks, prints traceable information online would bring huge benefits for artist and the artwork buyers.

If you have questions about buying limited editioned fine art prints through SpectrArt, you can also contact us at [email protected].