This 19th Century frame has been cut down to fit a mid 20th Century painting. Some may view the cutting down of antique frames to fit later paintings a small crime, but it has been going on for hundreds of years amongst museums, artists, and collectors; so I don't feel to guilty about it.
The frame was broken apart and then cut to size on a saw, ensuring that the centre ornament on all four sides were kept exactly in central. The guilloche type pattern met up OK at the four corners, but not perfectly, so it has been decided some mitre straps (or ribbons) would look better, these are going to be added to hide the join.
The frame was made a fraction smaller than the canvas and the rebate was then extended slightly to cover some areas of unfinished canvas. The rebate was lined with aluminium barrier tape, this tape serves two purposes;
First, to isolate from the painting any impurities in the wood of the frame. Second, to keep out any dust from the routering of the rebate, as the painting is glazed, it makes to so much easier to keep any loose specks from getting inside during assembly, if the rebate is sealed.
Next some rebate foam is added, this is usually used to cushion a painting from the rebate, but here it just helps to cushion the glazing as the rebates on antique frames often have irregularities. Once the glass was cleaned and put in the frame, a 5mm spacer was added to provide the important air-gap between glass and painting, rebate foam was also put on the spacer to protect the canvas. The glass used was Artglass™, which has high clarity, with minimal reflections.
Sometimes the back of canvases are taped over with gummed brown tape, personally I'm not a fan of this method, and have never been happy with putting water activated adhesive on canvases. The final job was to put some protective clear polyester film over the makers labels on the back of the frame and canvas stretchers, to preserve them for the future.
