Urban Art Association

Can't help with any answers but the last one to be tagged was Jack & Jill it wasn't stamped on but his tag is part of the print background.

CND soldiers is tagged on the paint pot but the mystery is "Why is there no red paint on the brush" ??

My GS from 2003 is signed but has no tag or POW stamp. My Gangsta Rat from 20004 is signed, not tagged, but has the POW stamp.

Banksy didn't stop tagging his screenprints. There are no fixed rules; it just depends on the individual prints.

- Some of the earlier prints (especially those with unscreened backgrounds) were separately stamped with a 'BANKSY' rubber stamp. This includes 'Rude Copper', 'Golf Sale', 'Barcode' and 'HMV'. However, there was not always a consistency with the stamping. For example, 'Rude Copper' prints were rubber-stamped vertically, but some have the "B" at the bottom of the print, while others have the "Y" at the bottom. Also, within the same edition (e.g. 'Barcode' or 'Golf Sale'), some prints were rubber-stamped but others weren't. The rubber-stamping was probably done as and when the prints sold, at the same time the edition number was added. One has to bear in mind that, back then, certain Banksy prints were available for sale at POW for a year or two (unlike today when they sell out in minutes). The prints were also sold by different staff members, hence the different writing styles of the edition numbers. In addition, POW was bulk selling prints to other distributors such as ArtRepublic, Selfridges or Tate Modern. It was therefore not always easy to ensure that all prints within the same edition looked the same.

- Some prints (in particular those with a screened background) have the Banksy tag as part of the actual screenprint. This applies to both the early ones such as 'Queen Vic', 'Have A Nice Day' (for which two versions exist, with different fonts and tag positioning) and 'Happy Choppers', and the later ones such as 'I Fought The Law', Virgin Mary' and 'Police Kids' (a.k.a. 'Jack and Jill'). 'Love Is In The Air' is the only print with a screenprinted reference to Banksy which is not in his tag style; it is in lower case and with the copyright symbol.

- Lastly, there are prints which for aesthetic reasons have no Banksy tag at all. This is the case for 'Girl With Balloon', Grin Reaper', 'Napalm', 'Sonic Rat'/'Radar Rat', the placard rats, 'Love Rat', the different 'Soup Can' prints, the different 'Kate' prints, and all of the 'Barely Legal' prints. With the exception of 'Girl With Balloon' (some stamped, others not), I have only seen this since the introduction by POW of its blindstamp.

goffyxtc,

The signed edition of 'Gangsta Rat' is out of 150.

It looks like there was a bit of POW human error at play with yours. This is not the first time, and I have seen a similar cock-up just recently on eBay with a 'WSM'. It shouldn't be a problem if you have your POW receipt or POW confirmation of purchase email or, if you are not the original purchaser, the relevant paperwork showing provenance.

Then no need to be concerned. POW will have you down on their database as the purchaser of the print.

If you wish to receive additional comfort, send an email to Dora at POW. She can confirm in writing that you bought the print, and that it was erroneously numbered x/750 instead of x/150.

''Love Is In The Air' is the only print with a screenprinted reference to Banksy which is not in his tag style; it is in lower case and with the copyright symbol.''

Not forgetting 'Turf War' which also has the lower case and copyright symbol