I have been browsing around trying to find some Maria Sibylla Merian prints. Very few are available (at art.com, allposters.com, postercheckout.com) and they are all expensive “giclee” prints. Art.com explains that “giclee” means that a black and white outline of the picture was printed out, and then some Joe Schmoe painted-by-number inside the lines.
A) So it isn’t really Maria Merian’s work, it’s half hers and half Joe Schmoe’s
B) We’re supposed to pay a premium for it.
A giclée print is basically a very high tech version of an ink-jet print. The word “gicleur” means “nozzle” in English. The inks now days are archival and aren’t supposed to fade (or at least they giclee prints are supposed to be comparable to photographs, but the process hasn’t been around long enough to prove that’s the case).
The process have been developed to be as faithful to the original image as possible.
ETA: here’s Wiki’s take on it. It is a more hands-on limited edition type process than say off-set poster printing.
Bwuh? It says it’s “hand-pulled” from a reproduction of the original engraving plate, then watercolour-painted. I don’t see anything regarding any form of digital printing.
It’s an engraving print that has been hand-painted with watercolours.
I’ve done linoprints that way.
But if I was buying a print, it would bug me if it was not hand-painted by the original artist. If that’s the case, then the OP’s assessment is correct. It’s been pulled from (presumably) the original plate, and then hand painted by Joe Shmoe.