Bomb Hugger

Bomb Hugger is a flat two-colour print with large uninterrupted areas and very little incident, and that is a condition problem rather than an aesthetic observation.

A handling crease, a scuff, a fingerprint or a patch of uneven fading has nowhere to hide on a plain ground. On a densely printed image the eye forgives a great deal; here it forgives nothing, and buyers comparing two impressions of the same edition will see the difference immediately. Impressions in genuinely fresh condition command a premium that owners often underestimate.

This is from the same early group as Laugh Now and Happy Choppers, and the same history applies: most examples were bought cheaply, framed casually and hung for years before anyone thought of them as assets.

Fading is the damage that catches owners out, because it happens slowly on their own wall and is only obvious beside a good impression. It cannot be reversed. Mount burn and tape residue in the margins can often be improved by a paper conservator; the colour cannot.

The signed edition is reported at 150 against 600 unsigned, and artist's proofs and other designations sit outside the main run and are scarcer again.

A proof marking in the margin changes what the sheet is, and is the sort of thing that gets missed when a work is valued from a photograph of the image alone. Read the pencil line before anything else.