Mounts
Mountboard, the stuff of mounts. I use two types of mountboard, Conservation and Museum. Both are non-acidic and buffered against the absorption of environmental acidity but are made from different materials.
Conservation is made with almost lignin-free wood pulp which is chemically treated to remove the lignin and buffered leaving it with a pH of 8.0 – 8.5, and Museum from cotton which is inherently acid-free but still buffered to 8.5 – 9.5 to play safe.
There are two common styles of mounting, overmounting, where the edge of the mount overlaps the edge of the artwork, and float-mounting. Here the window of the mount is larger than the artwork and a backing sheet is visible.
This can be a discreet shade or used to give a glimpse of contrast. This technique can be very effective with documents which need or would benefit from being displayed as such, eg degree certificates, citations or letters. Often images fill the sheet they occupy or have a signature unhealthily close to the edge, then float-mounting is essential.
Sometimes no mount is used at all, the sheet being attached to a suitable mountboard. This can produce quite a dramatic effect or seem the classic example of calm simplicity. A small fillet is inserted between the glass and the sheet to preserve distancing.
The choice of mount colour depends upon so much that the whole subject is best left until the image is actually on the bench.
The only comment I feel happy to make is that rarely does picking a colour from the image work satisfactorily. Mount decoration, lines, washes etc are creeping back into favour and, done sympathetically, can a beneficial effect on the framing.
