The Framers Forum

A customer called in with an old water colour mounted on a wood backing and mounted in a gold ornate frame that had come apart, and asked if I could 'fix' it. I agreed to do so however when I cleaned up the failed backing tape I noticed a few considerations that I would appreciate advice from the 'gurus' as to how best to recover the frame. The artwork has been arranged using a gold single mount, secured to a wooden back section (I decided not to attempt to seperate this) The back had been sealed using a sepia coloured adhesive paper based tape covering a 5.5" border of the moulding/insert combined, leaving only some provenance labels affixed to the untaped area in the centre section. I have re-secured the artwork using the same principle of pins, bent to capture the insert, and am now at the stage to re seal the back of the frame.
What tape would you recommend using? Would you replace the whole 5 1/2" border or, as I'm minded to do, leave the original tape in position across the artwork and lay new tape sufficient to reseal the artwork using wetted brown tape?

Although the original tape appears to Sepia coloured all through, I haven't seen any similar tape to recover with the same shade so intend to use the brown water wetted tape readily available from the usual stockists.

I also considered using the spring clips available from Lion to resecure the insert in the frame to minimise debris in front of the artwork but decided against it in favour of preserving the original technique but am interested in any views. Would you recommend this modern method for use on old frames?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Kind regards,

Dave

an old water colour mounted on a wood backing and mounted in a gold ornate frame

Sounds typical of a former time and tragic too!
It would be interesting to know exactly what you mean by "mounted" in both cases above?

I have re-secured the artwork using the same principle of pins, bent to capture the insert,

What is an "insert"?

Perhaps a photo might give people a better idea of the job and how to give an appropriate answer!

If all you are being paid to do is repair a broken frame, give the glass a clean/replace the glass (did you offer UV?) - re-seal and fit new hardware, and you did not discuss/charge for any re-mounting (which could have been a go-er - you don't know that the artwork is stuck to that wooden backer)

Then you have two options - remove that sealing paper/tape or just put new tape over it - that should have been decided on and charged for when you took the job on?

Maybe the quickest/easiest solution would be to seal the glass/backing package with s/adhesive (foil?) tape and then do a cosmetic job over the top of that - to cover the old tape/paper, esp if that tape/paper has now 'morphed' in to the frame backing and is going absolutely nowhere.

When all's said and done, at the end of the day - and - the bottom line is ...... with no UV protection and artwork probably attached to a festering thing with festering stuff, sealing the back is the least of the worries - just make it neat!

Sounds familiar. I'm guessing the glass in first, then the 'insert' - or liner as I would call it. A moulding with a rebate, narrower than the outer frame and probably with a coved front. This would be toenailed into the outer frame. Then the watercolour on it's board would be dropped in the back.

For a quick(ish) fix, just dismantle and clean all the filth out. Clean the glass. (lighter fuel and fine wire will bring it up a treat). Scrape off all the old paper. May need a bit of damping.
I you do nail back the liner (bit crude), drill though some new holes and use framing pins. Not the typical oval wire nails, or square-cut 'horseshoe' nails as was the usual practice in the past. A better way is with screw-eyes fixed horizontally into the liner and screwed though the eyes to the main frame. Not so much risk of cracking the glass that way. taping the glass to the liner will stop it rattling about. (I'm assuming here that the liner goes in after the glass and not in the liner and touching the painting. )

Re-papering the back is mostly cosmetic. The fact that the painting is stuck to a piece of wood makes perservation issues largely academic. A case of locking the stable door..... You might consider covering the inside of the liner with thin ragboard, although I suspect that any damge has already been done.