Antique compo frame breakdown

Here are some photos showing the stages of cutting down an antique composition ornamented gilded frame. The long dimension is the correct size, so only the shorter sides needed to be cut down, approximately 1 3/4" needed to be removed. First the two cuts were made at the required size. This left three sides joined together at the correct size and the fourth side still had the excess moulding held in place by the original mitres. A screwdriver was used to carefully push the mitre open, with a bit of prying apart the corner joints were separated, the nails (x4 in each corner) were then removed. The mitre was tidied up with some sanding and scraping, and the last photo shows the frame ready to be joined together (the bottom length is not fixed yet in this photo). There is a small amount of filling required where the nails were, but apart from this the corners came apart very well.

Gilded cushion

A cushion shaped moulding with incised corners and random punched star pattern. Water gilded in 12ct white gold.

Louis XIV carved oak

Heart corner

Detail of a corner with a pastiglia heart, the frame is painted in grey/pink bole and will be gilded in 12ct white gold. Below is the frame during the the building up of the gesso layers.

Gilded antique frame

This is the frame from the previous post after it has been gilded, before all the distressing and antiquing has been done.

Antique moulding frame

I have been so incredibly busy recently that this blog, my website, and the antique frame sale site have all been neglected. I had intentions to update and add lots to them all but have not had time. I have had lots of interesting jobs to do, although many have passed through the workshop without being photographed. This 19th Century moulding frame for example, came in covered in nasty brown overpainting, and had lots of missing areas of gesso. These photos are of the finished repairs and gilding. 

Antique frames website

It's always good to see new blogs and websites about frames, and especially about antique frames. There is a new site created by Mathilde-Jeannine Durand called 'Antique Frames' which looks like it will be another excellent resource for antique frames:

Antique Frames Mathilde-Jeannine Durand