Lithography, Serigraphy or Sterling Silver? A Plain Guide to Orthodox Icon Types
This is the question we are asked more than any other, and it is almost always asked the same way: "I see two icons of the same saint at very different prices — what am I actually paying for?" It is a fair question and it deserves a straight answer, so here is one, written without sales language.
The short version
We make and sell icons in three main forms. All three are canonical Orthodox icons. They differ in how the image reaches the surface, how much hand-work goes into finishing, and what material it lives on.
| Lithography | Serigraphy | Sterling silver | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Printed image mounted on wood | Silkscreen on wood or canvas, finished by hand | Image worked in 925 or 999 silver, often gold-plated |
| Hand-work | Mounting and finishing | Gold leaf, edge work, ageing, sealing | Metalwork and plating |
| Typical size | Small to large wall sizes | Small to large wall sizes | Miniature, desk or shelf scale |
| Usually chosen for | A first icon, a child's room, many icons at once | The main icon of a room or prayer corner | Baptisms, weddings, keepsake gifts |
Lithography: the honest workhorse
A lithography is a high-quality printed reproduction of an icon, mounted on wood and finished. That is the whole of it, and there is nothing to apologise for. Printed icons hang in a very large share of Orthodox homes, are sold in monastery shops on Athos and in Jerusalem, and are blessed in churches every week of the year.
What you get: the correct canonical image, accurate colour, at a price that lets you furnish a prayer corner rather than agonise over a single purchase. What you do not get: hand-laid gold, surface texture, or the small irregularities that make one piece unlike another.
We would point you here in three situations. If this is your first icon and you are still finding your feet. If you want several icons at once — Christ, the Theotokos, a patron saint — and the total matters more than any one piece. Or if it is for a child's room, where something replaceable is a mercy.
An example from our range: the Panagia Life-Giving Spring — a beloved subject, faithfully reproduced.
Serigraphy: where the hand comes in
Serigraphy is silkscreen printing. The image is pressed through a fine mesh screen onto a prepared surface — wood or canvas — and then the piece is finished by hand. The gold ground is laid in gold leaf. The edges are worked. The surface is aged and sealed so it deepens rather than yellows.
That hand-finishing is the difference you can see across a room, and it is why no two of ours come out identical. Gold leaf does not lie down the same way twice. Under a lamp it moves; a printed gold does not.
This is our main line and the one most people choose for the icon that will be the centre of a prayer corner or the one icon in a living room. On canvas it has a softer, more painterly surface; on wood it is firmer and hangs like a panel. Both are finished the same way.
An example: the Panagia Hodegetria on serigraphy canvas with gold leaf — the prototype traditionally ascribed to Saint Luke, and one of the oldest compositions in the Church. You can see the whole line in our serigraphy collection.
Sterling silver: for the occasions that get remembered
Our silver icons are a different object altogether. The image is worked in 925 sterling silver or 999 fine silver, frequently gold-plated in the Byzantine manner, in miniature format — made for a desk, a shelf, a bedside table, or to be given in a box.
The distinction between the two, since people ask: 925 sterling is 92.5% silver alloyed for strength, the standard for objects meant to be handled. 999 is nearly pure — softer, brighter, and used where the material itself is part of the gift.
These are what people choose when the occasion is meant to be remembered: a baptism, a wedding, a godchild's first icon, a milestone. The scale is small on purpose. It is not a wall icon; it is an object that travels with someone.
An example: the Glykophilousa in 925 sterling silver — the Sweet-Kissing Mother of God, one of the tenderest images in Orthodox iconography. The full range is in our silver icons collection.
Does the technique change what the icon is?
This is the question underneath the question, and it is worth answering directly, because it matters more than any of the above.
No. An icon is not holy because of what it is made of. The composition is what carries the tradition — the same figures, the same gestures, the same colours, handed down for over a thousand years. A printed icon of the Theotokos and a silver one are the same image and are venerated the same way. Neither is more "official". Neither is blessed more thoroughly.
What changes with technique is the object: how long it will last, how it holds light, how it feels in the hand, and what it says when given as a gift. Those are real considerations and it is fine to weigh them. But nobody should feel that a modest icon is a lesser prayer. Our Faith does not work that way, and neither do the households that keep it.
What size, in practice
The second-most-common question, and the one with the most useful answer: if you are choosing only one icon, choose 20×27 cm. That is about the size of a sheet of Letter paper — A4 if you think in centimetres — and it is the size that works as the icon of a room without dominating it.
Below roughly 10×15 cm you are in desk, bedside, car and travel territory. Lovely, and often a second or third purchase, but people who buy one small icon as their only icon frequently write back wanting something larger. Above 27×40 cm you are choosing for a wall meant to be seen from across the room, or making a gift where the scale is part of the gesture.
Silver icons sit outside this scale entirely — they are miniatures by design, and the size is not a compromise but the point.
Choosing by situation
My first icon. A lithography or serigraphy of Christ and of the Theotokos, 20×27 cm. Those two are the foundation of any prayer corner; everything else is added over time.
The main icon of a room. Serigraphy, 20×27 cm or larger. The hand-laid gold is what makes it read as an icon rather than a picture from across a room.
A name-day gift. The saint the person is named for, in serigraphy if it is going on a wall, in silver if it is going in a box.
A baptism or wedding. Sterling silver, or a large serigraphy. Both are chosen for the same reason: the object is expected to outlive the occasion.
Furnishing a whole prayer corner. Lithographies for the surrounding saints, one serigraphy as the centre. This is what most people actually do, and it is a sensible way to do it.
For travel or a car. Small format, and silver if it will be handled often.
If you are still unsure
Write to us. Tell us who it is for, where it will go, and roughly what you want to spend, and we will tell you what we would choose — including when the answer is the least expensive option. There is no question too small and no purchase expected.
We are a family workshop in Greece selling handmade Orthodox icons and church supplies worldwide. If this guide was useful, our other articles on the feasts and on setting up a prayer corner may be too.