How Anahita's work is priced

One method, published up front

Anahita’s prices are set by a single method, and the numbers are printed on the page. There is no private list and there is no back door. A collector can see the tier, the floor and the rule that produced the figure. If it looks confident, it is because it is.

For paintings the rule is: the price is the greater of the tier floor and (height in inches multiplied by width in inches multiplied by the tier rate), rounded to the nearest fifty pounds. The tier follows the longest side of the canvas. Works on paper follow the same rule at 0.6 of the tier rate, with a floor of three hundred and eighty pounds. Ceramics use a separate rule set out below.

The three tiers for paintings

• Studio work. Longest side up to forty-five centimetres. Floor four hundred and eighty pounds. Smaller canvases and boards painted in a sitting or two: the most direct line to her hand.

• Collection work. Longest side up to one hundred centimetres. Floor nine hundred and fifty pounds. This is the main body of the catalogue: finished, signed canvases at the size a room is built around. Most sitters, most seascapes, most night skies live here.

• Signature work. No upper size. Floor three thousand five hundred pounds. The large and definitive pieces: the Pierrots, the big night skies, the paintings she would send to a museum.

A simple frame adds ninety pounds; a gilt or ornate frame adds one hundred and forty. The calculated figure is rounded to the nearest fifty pounds before the floor is applied; floors are not rounded, and a frame uplift is added as it stands.

Sculpture

Ceramic prices follow: (height in centimetres plus width in centimetres) multiplied by twenty pounds, held within the tier range, rounded to the nearest ten pounds. Freestanding heads are multiplied by 1.6. The tiers are: small piece (three hundred and eighty to four hundred and eighty pounds), wall mask (six hundred and fifty to one thousand one hundred pounds), wall relief (one thousand two hundred to two thousand four hundred pounds), and freestanding head (one thousand eight hundred to three thousand five hundred pounds).

What comes with an original

Every original that leaves the studio arrives with:

• The signed original, one of one.
• A numbered certificate of authenticity.
• A story card in Anahita’s own words.
• Its entry in the catalogue, with you recorded as its owner.
• Insured UK delivery, or collection from the studio with the artist.
• The first artist’s proof, free of charge, if the work is ever made into an edition.

That last line is a promise, not a footnote. The person who bought the canvas is the first person who owns the print.

Payment plans and reservations

Works at one thousand five hundred pounds and above may be paid over three monthly instalments by arrangement; the work is held for you and delivered after the final payment. A work can also be reserved with a ten percent deposit: the reserve holds it for seven days. If you go ahead, the deposit comes off the price. If you decide not to, we return the deposit, no questions, as long as you tell us within those seven days. The separate fourteen-day statutory right to cancel after purchase is set out on the terms and shipping pages.

Prices are set by the studio

Prices are set by the studio, printed on the page, and held. Anahita paints; her son Michael handles every sale. If you have a question about a work or a price, please write to Michael. Anahita will not quote a figure by phone; she will pass the caller to him.

As the catalogue sells, the numbers on the surviving works rise. They never fall, and the studio never marks them down. The first collectors are the ones who help the catalogue move, and they are honoured accordingly by holding the price they saw.

Private collection and not for sale

Some works are marked private collection or not for sale. These pieces are not available at any price. They are hers, or they are already in a home, and no offer changes that. She does not want anyone to accuse her of over-valuing a piece she never intended to sell, so the shelf and the wall label say so plainly.

Why prints exist

Prints exist so that the originals can stay at the price they deserve, and so that anyone can own the work. The editions ladder starts with an open edition on archival paper, moves through a signed limited edition of twenty-five sent from the studio, and finishes with a collector’s proof of ten, hand-finished by the artist. Full details, sizes and prices are on the prints page.

The originals stay one of one.