Sam Haskins

Gill & Curl - 1961

With a handful of exceptions, Haskins did all his own printing for his creative work. He also passed away (2009) with only 2.5% of his archive signed. The Haskins archive is characterised by a very broad creative range, including many iconic works. Still, there is only a very small number of silver gelatin prints for each image (typically 1-3 copies, sometimes a few more), so signed works are especially rare. Sam Haskins built his reputation on his legendary books, which meant he originally printed to make maquettes (4 for each 60’s title) for presentation to publishers, not to produce stock for the print market. In other words, Sam Haskins silver gelatine are organically hyper-limited, there are no ‘editions’ of his vintage black and white work.

The Sam Haskins Estate, uniquely amongst the estates of leading photographers, provides a free pigment print, an archival quality open edition copy, of each silver gelatin print sold through its primary market outlets.

This obviously offers a great deal of flexibility to collectors, art lovers and investors alike and has proved to be very popular. The copy print is produced to archival standards on heavy 315gsm Hahnemühle Cotton Rag Baryta paper (61cm x 57.5cm). It is also certified by the Sam Haskins Estate to the same high standards as the vintage works using their unique PIN (Print Identification Number) Certificates.

These copy prints are designed for ownership flexibility from an art-loving perspective, they are not intended as investments, but not unsurprisingly - given the high quality - their value in the secondary market has steadily risen above the price normally charged by the estate for these contemporary prints.