Artists often mark their prints with an identifying monogram. The monogram may be incorporated into the print itself or added latter as a separate stamp. Sometimes the publisher and printer also add their identifying marks to a print.
This is Lucas Cranach's coat of arms and his monogram as seen on his woodcut The Temptation of Saint Anthony of 1506.
Albrecht Dürer's monogram incorporating his initials "A" and "D" is probably the most famous and most copied of printmakers' monograms. This is Dürer's monogram as he engraved it in his Betrayal of Christ of 1508 from the Engraved Passion.
Hendrik Goltzius' monogram clearly follows Dürer's precedent of combining initials and date on a cartouche. This particular print, Goltzius' masterful Circumcision of 1594, emulates Dürer's engraving style as well.
James Abbott Mcneill Whistler's monogram, seen here on his etching The Garden of 1880, is an abstracted image of a butterfly. He often trimmed his prints right up to the plate mark, except for one small tab of paper on which to put this characteristic butterfly monogram, often, as here, with the abbreviation "imp." (impressit, or "printed it"). The butterfly monogram can also be made out on the wall to the left of the doorway in this etching.
Félix Buhot's stamped monogram incorporates his initials and an owl. This example is from a beautiful print of a bronze spirit from his series Japonisme of 1888 that was printed on yellow Chinese paper.
This is Helen Hyde's monogram as it appears on her woodcut New Year's Day, Tokyo of 1914. Hyde was an important artist from the United States who participated in the enthusiasm for Japanese prints around 1900. Her monogram takes on the form of a signature and seal on a traditional Japanese woodcut.
Many recent prints have an embossed "chop mark" to identify the printer, the publisher, or both. These marks appear in the margins of the print. This is the chop mark of the Lawrence Lithography Workshop in Lawrence, Kansas. From this we also know that the print was printed by the shop's master lithographer, Mike Sims.