Laugh Now

Laugh Now dates from 2003, which puts it among the earliest screenprints the artist released and means most examples have now spent two decades on somebody's wall.

That is the single most useful thing to know about this print. Sheets from this period were frequently framed long before conservation framing was normal in the market, so mount burn, tape staining in the margins and fading from display are common rather than exceptional. A clean example of an early image is scarcer than the edition size suggests, and the market prices that difference sharply.

The signed edition is reported at 150 and the unsigned at 600, which is the usual shape for a Pictures on Walls release of this period and produces the usual division: two prints of the same image traded by two different sets of buyers.

Unsigned impressions are the entry point and the more plentiful; signed impressions sit well above them. Neither is a variant of the other for pricing purposes — they are catalogued separately and should be valued against their own edition rather than against the image.

The pencil line along the bottom edge carries the numbering, any proof marking and the signature if there is one, and the publisher's blind stamp usually sits in a lower corner where it needs light raking across it to show.

Photograph the full sheet with all four margins rather than a crop of the image. Trimming to fit a frame is common on prints of this age, is permanent, and is catalogued for the rest of the work's life.