Giving original art

What travels with an original, choosing together with a folio, prints as gifts, and commissions as gifts.

An original painting or a signed print is one of the few gifts that arrives with a story of its own and grows into the room where it is hung. A few practical notes make it a better gift.

What arrives with an original

Every original from the studio arrives with the signed work itself, a numbered certificate of authenticity, a story card in Anahita’s own words, and its entry in the catalogue with the new owner recorded. Insured delivery within the United Kingdom is included in the price of every painting and work on paper, or the work can be collected from the studio in Surrey by appointment. If the work is ever made into an edition, the owner of the original receives the first artist’s proof. When you give the piece, all of this goes with it, so the person receiving it holds the whole record from the first day.

If you would like a note of your own to travel with the work, write it into the message when you order, or send it to the studio afterwards, and it will go in with the certificate.

Choosing together

Most people who give art worry about choosing the wrong picture. The site has two quiet ways round this.

The first is the folio. The Keep control on every work gathers a shortlist on whichever device you are using; the folio page shows the kept works together with their sizes and prices, and a Send action passes the list to the studio with a note. Browse with the person the gift is for, keep the works you both like, and buy from that shortlist; or keep your own shortlist and ask the studio which of them would sit best in the room you have in mind.

The second is the wall studio. Photograph the wall the work would hang on, set the scale against something of known size, and place the work at its true size. It answers the two questions that decide most gifts, whether the picture is the right size and whether the colours belong in the room, before any money changes hands. The photograph never leaves the device.

Prints as gifts

A print is a proper gift, not a lesser one. Every painting with prints has an open edition in A4, A3 and A2, printed to order by a specialist fine-art lab in the United Kingdom and posted from the lab, unframed or framed. Some works also have signed limited editions, hand-signed and numbered by Anahita and sent from the studio with a certificate. The prints page sets out the ladder and the prices.

Commissions as gifts

A portrait, a family or pet portrait, or a ceramic portrait can be given as a gift. Write to Michael first: the brief, size, price and timescale are agreed in writing before any work begins, and a deposit secures the place in the queue. Because a commission takes weeks rather than days, it suits a birthday or an anniversary that you know about in advance. The commissions page has the from-prices and the steps.

Two things to tell the studio

If the gift must arrive by a particular date, say so before you order; the studio will say plainly what can be done in the time. If the gift is a surprise, say so when you order, and the studio will take care over how and where it arrives.

Michael, for the studio