Certificates of Authenticity

I thought I would post on something that I have been doing for quite a few years now and that I think adds a bit of validity to selling paintings. I had seen certificates of authenticity done by professional artists as a matter of course and thought that it would be a good idea to start doing this myself as I was selling a fair few paintings and this would show that I was serious about being a professional artist and not only that it would give the buyer some peace of mind that they were buying something genuine and worthy of them spending their money.

Added to that, the certificate of authenticity I use also incorporates a copyright notice and advises the buyer of the fact that I remain the owner of the copyright with the right to print copies of the original if I choose to do so.

Also on the certificate is the catalog number which makes it easy for me to refer back to which painting it is that the person has bought if I ever need to (of course this means that you need to catalog your paintings too!). I have an excel spreadsheet listing all of my paintings and when and where they were sold just in case I need to refer to it.

I stick my certificate of authenticity on the back of the canvas of each painting I create (except any really small ones). After prior experience I have learned that the best way to apply it is with a quality spray glue like the one below (US and UK products are shown). I started off using PVA but soon discovered that this can show through on the front of the painting if there is no texture on the painting to disguise it! You can get cheaper spray glues from stationery shops but I found to my cost that some of them are pretty useless so I figured it is better to get a good quality one like the 3M adhesive.

 

I have the certificate of authenticity in a Word file so I have created a similar blank one that you can download if you don’t already have one and feel free to change it to suit your own needs – it is based on a free template so there is no problem using it. Hopefully attaching the document below will work!

Certificate of Authenticity – Blank