Frame Valeting
A frame is no different from any other possession, it does require a minimal amount of attention from time to time. However this is rather more than most frames receive and after a time it will begin to reflect the lack of TLC, or rather not reflect. The general areas which will require attention are glazing, the mount, the appearance of the frame itself and last but not least, the hangings on the back.
Glass has improved immensely in recent years and the most important innovation is UV filtering glass. While UV is not the sole cause of fading colours and darkening paper, it is the main culprit. Mountboard is now made to a higher specification and for any piece of any value, sentimental or monetary, some form of acid-free mountboard should be used together with an acid-free undermount and acid-free backboard.
How have pictures survived so long you ask? Many haven’t and require the attention of a conservator but credit must be given to the framers of the past who worked out their own methods of caring for works on paper, lining the back with rag paper, padding the inside with horse hair to keep humidity under control and sealing the glass into the rebate in exactly the same way as is done now.
True, these were clearly the town’s high end framers but they were aware of the perils of a sheet of paper’s existence.
Valeting a frame consists of unpicking the contents of the frame and assessing their condition.
It is a process for which clients often like to be present as interesting little bits often turn up in an old frame. Not by any means valuable, but informative and occasionally horrific.
I will always try to keep as much original material as is safe or can be made safe and replace only what is prudent to do.
Cleaning the Frame
The frame itself will often benefit from some sort of gentle cleaning and occasionally a touch up here and there. Dust and muck will always settle on the top of the top rail and on the sight edge of the lower rail. If that is all, it still improves the overall appearance of the frame. The feather duster while much better than nothing, will not remove all the grime.
Hangings
Oil paintings in a frame are usually much less problematic. The most common work apart from the gentle clean, is the replacement of the hangings on the back. The hangings are very often wires fixed to large screw eyes and falling off the wall, the most common accident, is caused by the screw eyes coming out of the frame.
This is due to the eyes rusting in the frame and weakening the grip and the purchase the wire has on the eye. This is a perfectly simple DIY job, replacing the screw eyes with plate fixings which removes the leverage issue, and new stainless steel wire on the back, all of which I can supply if required.
Cleaning the Glass
Cleaning the glass could not really be simpler and can make a real difference. It is a worthwhile DIY job to do with all glazed pictures from time to time.
Take the picture down and lay it on a towel or similar to stop it slipping. I use a fine microfibre cloth (mine come from Lidl) which is lightly dampened with water.
Then wipe. Take your time. You will probably need to rotate the cloth to keep a clean area doing the work but beyond that there is nothing to it.
I say “can make a difference” rather than “will”. Over the years, the surface of the glass will slowly degrade due to pollution. We are talking 30yrs + so no need to panic, but there may be pictures which have been in your possession most of your life, or be family heirlooms. These might well be showing their age on a closer inspection.
A Typical Case
In the case of the illustrated example, we discovered on taking the frame apart that the sheet was only small and in good condition so it was decided to float mount it in the cleaned frame but to use a thicker mount and a pale grey float which gave the picture a much fresher look. The glass was retrievable but was replaced with UV glass which, given the size of the picture, 28 x 20cm, was no great cost.