The Bourne engravings of Doré paintings are very impressive. No doubt about it. Unfortunately, many of the ones I've seen for sale in the last few years were not worth the staggering amounts would-be sellers had in mind. On the other hand, none are common and some have not appeared for sale in two decades or more.

I have no private knowledge about the values of Doré engravings. Minimum bid prices posted in auction catalogs and on eBay represent wishes and predictions only . I have dealt with the valuing of collectibles for a half century. If I could give only one piece of advice, it is to ignore what someone thinks something should be worth. No matter the collectible, no matter the rarity, no matter the opinions of experts, you should rely on information from actual sales only.

I frequently receive inquiries about valuing and insuring the large Doré engravings. The engravings were prepared for the Fairless-Beeforth Doré Gallery in London in the late 1870s and early 1880s. Some, but not all, were signed in pencil by both Doré and Bourne. (See examples.)

I have never found any records regarding how many prints were prepared, printed, or sold. The number of examples that survive is limited, but again, I have never encountered an educated census.

Doré-Bourne prints appear for sale infrequently, certainly fewer than three per year. Nonetheless, there should be some pricing history. If you are interested in values for insurance purposes, you need to discover actual sales prices.

Several of the Bourne/Doré engravings have appeared for sale on eBay in the last decade. Those sales have been difficult to typify. Sellers generally offered the prints at such outrageously high starting prices that they never received bids. A few prints had serious condition problems; again, none attracted bids. Having said that, be aware that condition problems are normal for the series for the simple reason that it is very difficult to preserve large pieces of paper for 130 years without incurring damage.

I have no way of estimating prices for Bourne/Doré prints. For that reason, every time someone asks for "more information," I refer them to this page.

I share your concern over value and insurance. So, my suggestions are to:

1) Get a decent photograph of your print. A poorly lit, poorly focused photo from your cell phone will not be adequate. Examine your print very carefully. Measure its exact size and describe EVERY flaw. If your print was framed before you acquired it, make sure you know what problems are hiding under the glass and especially under the mat. Old mats were often acidic and may have yellowed and aged the underlying print. Are Doré's and Bourne's autographs visible in the bottom corners? If so, were they written in pencil?

2) Find a REPUTABLE and experienced art consultant who has subscriptions to major art auction records. This is crucial.

References to the large Doré prints, by Bourne and others, appear in records from several art auctions. Unfortunately, sales results are locked behind subscriptions and those subscriptions are expensive. Only the most profitable of professional art consultants can afford them. Those are the consultants you need to contact. You will find consultants of such stature in major cities and in special places like Aspen, Colorado, Santa Fe, New Mexico and elsewhere in Europe. Because Doré's engravings originated in England, they are greatly more common in Europe than in the United States.

3) Ask your art consultant to research prices paid for all the large Doré engravings. Ask for prices realized, commissions paid, and the dates of the sales. Expect to pay for that research. Once you have found a consultant, you MUST stress to your consultant that:

• you need prices for the engravings, NOT Doré's paintings. Prices for the engravings are fractions of the amounts paid for the paintings.
• you need to learn "prices realized"; price estimates and minimum starting bids are interesting but useless.
• you need prices for insurance reasons.

You may not be able to find reliable prices for your specific engraving. Consequently, make sure your consultant researches prices for all of the Doré engravings. There were 25 engravings prepared and sold by Fairless and Beeforth. These nine engravings were engraved by Bourne:

• Christ Leaving the Praetorium
• Christian Martyrs in the Coliseum
• Moses Before Pharaoh
• Night of the Crucifixion (Les Tenebres) by Bourne and William Ridgeway
• Soldiers of the Cross
• Triumph of Christianity over Paganism
• Les Tenebres
• La Vigne
• Andromeda

Christ Leaving the Praetorium and Triumph of Christianity over Paganism are more common than the other Bourne/Doré prints. References to Moses Before Pharaoh and Soldiers of the Cross are extremely rare.

I had originally found references that attributed Massacre of the Innocents to Bourne. In 2012, Doré expert Dan Malan finally corrected me and informed that Massacre of the Innocents, was actually Louis Godfrey. Malan's biography and bibliography, Gustave Doré, Adrift on dreams of splendor (Malan Classical Enterprises, 1995), lists all 29 large engravings by Bourne, Godfrey, Francois and others.

4) As long as your art consultant can compile two or three recent prices, you ought to be able to safely insure your print. If your item is framed, be sure to account for the frame's replacement value for insurance purposes. If you are seeking valuations for the purposes of selling, you should probably NOT count the price of the frame. Unless frames are extraordinary, frames are often considered either worthless or as liabilities when selling. If you try to sell a framed print, do not be surprised if potential buyers ask you to discard frames before shipping. (Do not be offended if experienced buyers say they will accept your frame, but ask you to remove the glass.)