Edition Abbreviations Demystified
by Judy Gex
December 31, 2015
I occasionally get emails asking for precise definitions of the abbreviations used in the poster listings. Here is a short list of abbreviations you might encounter:S/N - Signed & NumberedLE - Limited EditionA/E - Artist EditionA/P - Artist ProofP/P - Printer's ProofS/E - Subscription EditionUC - UncutS&D - Scratch & Dent
S/N - Signed & Numbered
This should be self-explanatory, but possibly still confusing for our newer LE print collectors. A signed/numbered print will have a number that looks like this - 20/420. The first number is the number of the print, the second number is the edition size. This print would also be signed by the artist.
There are some of the older prints that are either numbered only or signed only. We're trying to go back through all of the listings and make corrections if necessary.
LE - Limited Edition
A "LIMITED" edition is just that. A finite number was printed in the original run and it's unlikely they will ever be reprinted. A Limited Edition can include several different sub-editions including AP, AE, PP, SE and numbered variants.
A/E - Artist Edition
Over the years, as our relationships with clients and bands has developed, some of them wanted a small distinction between the SN show edition and the ones we sold after the show in our web store. The answer to that was creating an Artist Edition alongside the SN Edition. We decided not to use AP on these because traditionally, the AP edition was not more than 10% of the SN edition. A/Es are S/N unless otherwise indicated.
A/P - Artist Proof
This mostly applies to older prints before we started creating Artist Editions, but there are some prints that include both sub-editions. So we will be able to meet the number for the edition required by the client, we always slightly overprint the actual number needed to account for misprints. Once we've sorted and pulled any misprints, we then count the remainder for the numbered edition. If there are more, than needed for that, we'll number them as A/Ps.
P/P - Printer's Proof
Occasionally, we pulled a few prints as samples. These were marked as Printer's Proofs.
S/E - Subscription Edition
For 4 years, we put together Subscription Editions that were sold at the beginning of the year with tubes sent out each quarter. These included every print created in the studio during that year... handbills, promotional mini prints, lithos and art prints. These editions were in addition to the SN, AP and/or AE editions, but still part of the one originasl print run. Same print, just different mark.
UC - Uncut
UC Press Sheet
There are 2 different types of uncuts. The first is the uncuts like the ones sold at shows of diptychs and triptychs created for a multi-night event and the second is the entire press sheet that has never been trimmed down from the original print run. The latter will still have the register marks and color info in the margins. We will make sure each of these are amply described.
S&D - Scratch & Dent
The Scratch & Dent option is for damaged prints from ALL of the different editions. Details on which edition and/or how they are marked will be included in the individual descriptions.
If I think of anything else, I'll amend this, but those are the biggies.
Judy Gex
Author