Origins. With the exception of the large Doré prints, the vast majority of surviving Bourne engravings originated from appearances in magazines and books. I suspect most have been removed from their original associations in recent decades. Now that they are in the hands of collectors, most will survive with little further degradation.

The most common problems are those typical of all prints of similar age and origin, namely foxing and minor edge tears. Minor corner tip folds are to be expected, but probably the worst condition problems will have to do with foxing. Fortunately, the paper used on most of the Bourne prints was high quality, so foxing is normally acceptable. If you acquire any prints with heavier than average foxing, prints are cheap enough to simply acquire a second example.

Tight trims. Many of the magazines and books that once held Bourne prints may have sat on shelves for decades, maybe even a century. You can be sure they weren't "babied." In that time, edges often became discolored, frayed or maybe even nibbled. Such shelf wear is completely normal. As long as the damage is on the edges of the print, who cares? Yet a large number of sellers cut off those ratty edges, hoping to disguise age. Yeah, right! Unfortunately, in their efforts at improvement, they often over-trim, even going so far as to remove lettering from the bottom edges. The worst example seems "Miriam", with "The Last of England" a close second.

Matting and framing. I consider framing one of the surest ways of removing excess inventory from the collectors market. I am not against framing, per se. However, once a print has been hung on a wall and exposed to sunlight for a few years, it will inevitably acquire a yellow tint and the outline of a mat. Paper with lower cotton content will grow brittle. Either way, the print's value as a collectible will decrease. Again, prints are currently so cheap that value is probably not much of a consideration.

Hand coloring. Approximately three to five percent of Bourne prints have been hand-colored with colored pencils, pastels and water colors. While hand-coloring of engraved and lithographed prints was fairly popular in Victorian England where most of these prints originated, I can't tell whether coloring is old or new. In my opinion, hand-coloring is an excellent way to decrease collectible value to near zero. Colored engravings make for affordable wall art, though. Of the hundreds of offerings I've tracked over the last ten or fifteen years, I cannot find record of any actual sales of hand-colored prints. I'm not saying that they don't sell, but they certainly don't seem to sell on eBay, eBid and Amazon.