Carved Cassetta Frame

A lovely 19th Century revival carved copy of an Italian 16th? C cassetta frame.

18th Century Carved Candle Holder

This 18th Century carved wood candle holder came in with the 18th C mirror frame posted yesterday, part of a large restoration project of a Georgian house. It has been over-painted and has a few sections missing, the condition is a little fragile so it will also need some securing. The later applied gold paint, which has tarnished over time and gone this horrible brown bronze colour, will be removed. 

19th Century Swept Frame

A classic example of a Victorian Rococo revival of Louis XV swept frame styles.

When the back is as good as the front

I have mentioned before how much I like the back of frames nearly as much as the front, and like a true frame nerd I regularly take photos of the backs, corners, and old labels. Here are a few examples showing some different joining methods: a butterfly key at the top, then a dovetail joint, the middle photo shows a Newcomb Macklin style ply spline, and the last two are mitre splines. There are some other methods used traditionally which I will post another time, I will also post some modern methods when I get a chance.

I think if you pick up an antique or old frame and see any of these joining methods, it straight away stands out as a very well crafted frame. I think old framers labels should be photographed for historical record, many are clearly fragile and should be protected with a piece of melinex.

gold paint over gilding

This water gilded, late 19th Century slip had been overpainted with gold paint, you can see in the photo above how it has gone a lovely browny bronze colour due to oxidation. This layer of paint (it would have originally been gold) was easily removed with acetone, which reveals the original water gilding in gold leaf.
Why was it painted over in the first place? well the gilding is quite distressed and rubbed away in places. A classic cause of damage to the water gilding is someone giving it a wipe with a damp cloth, this removes the protective coat of size or ormolu and makes a mess of the surface. The more cleaning and rubbing, the worse it gets so the solution was to tidy it up with a coat of gold paint. The slip is not actually that badly damaged, and personally I think it looks good with some rub through to the bole.

Portrait frame

   

This rather striking 1920's portrait is framed in a 4 1/2" wide fluted cove frame, probably best described as a neo-classical style. I have water gilded the inner and outer sections in 23.5ct gold leaf, with some areas burnished. The fluted cove is finished in bronze powder, as are the sides. The back edge is painted in a yellow ochre, which was typical of many antique frames. The gilding is distressed and given a layer of protective varnish.

Antique oak frame

This painting has been framed in an antique oak frame, from the same period, with a gold sight edge slip.

frame restoration

I finished restoring this set of four delicate little Victorian frames last week. They each had lots of little bits missing, and are now good and complete without any missing sections of ornament.

More repairs

Nearly finished repairing various frames this week, I've had a bit of a cold since the weekend, so have not been able to get as much done this week as I hoped.

A week of restoration

  
I will spend most of the coming week working on antique frames, I have 11 to repair and restore, including a couple of Florentine mirror frames, a 'Hogarth' frame, a nice carved French frame, and an English veneer frame.

Antique frame on a holiday souvenir

It is not the usual method of framing paintings bought on holiday, but I think this antique French style moulding frame works very well and is an interesting contrast on this fun painting. The frame is heavily distressed water gilding, with the gesso and wood exposed in places, the whole surface has been protected and stabilised with a consolidating adhesive, to stop any more losses to the surface.