Many of Bishop’s etchings were reproduced mechanically in large quantities by Brown and Bigelow, the firm which published his calendars.  Bishop painted six paintings a year for Brown and Bigelow’s calendars.  These were given as promotional items by companies to their clients or employees.  These reproductions are not considered collectibles and hold little to no value, whereas Bishop's etchings sell from anywhere from a few hundred to a couple thousand dollars.

A good way to determine if you have a reproduction is to take a strong magnifying glass (8X or higher) and look at the image.  If you have a reproduction, you will see a dot pattern in the image which is very similar to the dot pattern you see in newspaper pictures.  This indicates that it is a mechanical reproduction. 

Also, in nearly all cases, the actual image size of a reproduction is smaller in size than the genuine etchings and may have the word “repro” somewhere on them (often top left corner or top center edge.)  Most all reproductions have a copyright notice with the “B&B” logo either printed on or attached to them.

If you are still unsure of what you have, please CONTACT US.  When you do, be sure to include the title (if available), the image size, and a picture.  We can tell quite a bit from that information.

We did a lot of research for the book on Bishop's works on paper that was published in 2008, Richard E. Bishop, Etchings, Drypoints and Aquatints.  Click on the title of the book for more information.

Additional Bishop information:
Although Bishop created some watercolors, he worked mostly in oils.  If the work you have is under glass, it could be simply an image cut from a calendar.  Many people years ago cut out the images from the calendars and framed them.  It was an inexpensive way to have art at home.

Bishop-Reproduction-Information-Page