C&I Lithos

Saw these today but they are recently framed with no visible text, so, not sure if they are old. Should I take a chance buying them?

 

Were you able to look at them through a loupe?

You might be able to identify one or more of the images by using Google image search.

 

I identified the images with google.
What should I look for with the loupe?

 

Really like this - check out the geology and the fortress(?)

Exactly how I envisioned my tiny house

 

I think they are repros.

 

I’d think a lot of the repros bear the original printed text.

 

Ah, so they're all Currier & Ives?

If you see dots in all of them, like the last image you posted, they're repros.

If any don't have dots, there's a chance they're original, but they could also have been reproduced using a method that doesn't use a dot pattern.

 

They all seem a bit off. Like being printed in colors. The originals should be hand colored I think?

 

I believe most original Currier & Ives prints were hand-colored stone lithographs. They may have also done chromolithographs, where the color wouldn't have been done by hand. But with chromos, you'd see irregularly shaped and sized dots.

I didn't check eBay, but it's possible that even nice repros will sell, but don't know in what price range.