The Framers Forum

When delivering a picture back to a customer’s house, the next-door neighbour gave me a poster to take away in order to recommend some frame options. The poster is about 55 years old, and has been sandwiched between 4mm thick glass and ½” thick plywood, held in place with clips, no mount, no frame. The thing is, the glass hasn’t caused any damage to the poster at all - in fact it’s in mint condition after 55 years, not even any light damage. I’ve got a poster myself which was framed nearly 40 years ago and although it’s faded, it isn’t showing any sign of damage from being against the glass. If I go back and tell the customer that the poster needs to kept away from the glass with suitable recommendations, the customer is understandably going to be mystified as to the problem, and I must admit, I’m perplexed myself. Can anyone here explain why there isn’t damage from the glass, and whether/how they would justify to the customer that the poster needs to be kept away from the glass in future.

I've seen this many times. Things that have been in atrocious frames for years and years and not suffered at all.

It's a case of more good luck than judgement.

Obviously these things had been in a stable environment. Most of the ratty old frames you see didn't go like that while they
were hanging on someone's wall. It's in the last few years of their existence when they have been bunged in a shed or loft that
the rot sets in. Stand an ornate gesso'd frame on a concrete floor and thegesso will crumble away in weeks. After it had
been hanging on a wall for maybe 150 years.

Thing is, you can never rely on people not abusing pictures. Mainly ignorance. So it's best to try to anticipate the worse case scenario.

That poster must have been from a time when they used half-decent paper and good inks. It must have been well looked after and kept
away from damp sheds. If it had been put in a shed it would have suffered if condensation had formed on the glass. But if it had been
'conservation' framed it would have stood a much better chance of surviving in a reasonable condition.

Agreed. The picture has been kept away from anywhere that there has been any risk of condensation, and out of direct light.

That makes sense now, thanks.

The customer doesn't want a mount, so assuming the poster is going to be hung in the same environment, I take it that it will be OK to reframe it against the glass?

Having been clipped with no frame, it's had a lot of air circulating around it. I usually seal up a sandwich and then tape round the backboard, so two levels of insulation there. Would it be better to not tape round anything so that it can still breathe?

Is it a loose 'bond' paper? If so, it's probably going to be fine against the glass, as it has been all its life. Uncoated bonds don't tend to stick to glass - in much the same way that mountboard doesn't.

Modern coated papers or anything photographic cause the most problems, because the ink sits on the surface of the former, and the emulsion on the latter. And condensation is far less likely to form if it's a loose weave paper - if it was to form, it's more likely to just absorb through the paper.

There are millions of prints framed against glass in people's homes everywhere with no problems whatsoever - we only see the few that have problems and need sorting out!

I'd just outline the pitfalls, warn that it needs to be kept in a stable environment, and crack on.

You could suggest using acrylic which is generally more approved of for framing in contact with the artwork - you don't suffer condensation problems.