The Framers Forum

Today I have been given a watercolour, to price, for a remount and frame.

The watercolour, which appears in good condition, is in a slightly buckled pink window mount, with an unattached undermount; all contained within a plastic envelope.
But having briefly looked at it, it appears that the undermount was, at some time, attached to the windowmount with double-sided tape along the top edge, fairly centrally.
The watercolour is attached to the rear of the windowmount with what may be either the same type of double- sided tape, or glue.
There are a row of small blobs along the central top edge of the artwork.

Are there any foolproof methods of separating the artwork from the windowmount, without causing damage to the artwork.
The mount will be replaced, as a matter of course.

The photo shows the blobs along the top edge of the artwork and the D/S tape which was used to attach the undermount.

Any help or advice will be much appreciated.

Jack

See this quite often. So much for reversablity.

First thing: Find out if the painting is of vast value of if it's a happy-dabbler job. (My money is on the second). If it's valuable, don't fiddle with it. It's a job for a restorer.


You can try delicately slipping an artist's palette knife inbetween and probing gently. (Like they do in war movies when clearing minefields). When you meet resistance, give a gentle twist and see if the tape/glue gives. Sometimes you can carefully work your way around like this and at least get the painting off. It will look like a dog's dinner though. It will probably tear either a chunk of the watercolour paper or the mount. This is a not good, but in many ways the damage was already done. The thing to do is to confine the tearing to the border of the painting. Avoid at all costs running a tear onto the image. If it's tape, sometimes warming with a heat gun will persuade it to let go more easily. Still messy though.

I must emphasise that these are strictly 'best of a bad job' methods.

Thanks Peter.
In answer to your first Q.
I can't imagine that it is of great value.
In fact, following your further advice, I have managed to separate the artwork from the window mount, without apparent damage.
D/S tape It transpires to be a print of a watercolour of 'Mildenhall Market Place circa 1880' so the title in the white border declares, (unseen when positioned in the mount) & the original watercolour signed by one Philip Blight. (means nowt to me )

It has left a residue of a sticky substance from the D/S tape on the top border about 8" long, and a triangle about 1/2" x 3" into the print, where the tape wasn't positioned with any sort of care at all.

I intend to show it to the owner before I do anything more.
I'll get his views, and hopefully direction, as to how he wishes me to proceed.
There is a fair amount of sky in the picture, so covering the offending area with the new mount will not be a problem, ....

Thanks again. Nice to know that my trepidation was at least, to some extent, justified.

Jack

The least evasive method to test for ATG tape is to heat the surface with a hair dryer prior to using a pallet knife with a SLOW ROTATING MOTION. The heat will soften the adhesive if that is in fact what it is.

The favourite method of yesteryear for attaching stuff to mounts was to lather it copiously with hot hide glue. You end up with something like lumps of brittle toffee all over the place.

.... lumps of brittle toffee all over the place ....

Ahhh.
the mysteries and carefully guarded secrets of a noble art, at last exposed ~ in all their glory

The heat will soften the adhesive.....

So will I be able to remove the residual adhesive, which remains attached (in admittedly, only a small area) to the face of the print?
Will the heat damage the print, no matter how carefully, or gently, it is applied?

Hi Stroke Bloke

When it comes to residue sticky stuff, after picking carefully at it and finding it will not budge I have been known to use talculm powder and it sticks to the sticky stuff so that it doesn't stick else where when remounting

Ian

Clever Ian. Thank you.
I'll certainly remember that one, whether I use it on this occasion or not.
I'll probably try it on some scrap first ~ my luck being what it is - I find that it's best to do a 'dry-run' whenever possible

Heat is your first thing to try. You don't need to use much force if heat is gonna solve the problem.

Second thing to try if heat does not work (assuming that the mount is not wanted), is to carefully peel away the mount layer by layer until you get down to the double sided tape, or what ever it is that is holding the painting to the mount.

Not all double sided tapes are the same adhesive composition, so the safe removal with solvents, etc., will be subject to a little trial and error. It also depends upon the age of the double sided tape and the nature of the paper. So before you attempt to remove anything from the face of the painting, a photo showing any remaining double sided would be helpful before advising you further, as it would be good to know what we are dealing with first.

Most double sided tape and self adhesive residues can be fully removed, but it's easier and safer to demonstrate how, than to explain in words only.

This is the remaining residue; which, having been exposed to the air for several hours, is no longer particularly sticky.
Given that it is not possible to demonstrate removal procedures Mark, once I've spoken to the owner and presented the issue to him, I'll try, on a very small part of the boundary edge, to remove the residue, using first heat, and if that is less than satisfactory, or appears to be not beneficial to the print, I'll try a solvent.
If that is unsuccessful, I'll suggest just covering the residue with the top edge of the mount.

All things considered, I wouldn't touch it. Cover the blemish with the mount. Thing is. if you leave it, the possibility exists to remove the residue at any time. The print will look presentable even if a slice of the top is under the mount. If you try to remove it and things go pear-shaped, then this action would make future restoration much more problematic.

I try to avoid straying from framing to restoration. Because I don't know enough about it. But I do know enough to know when to leave well alone.

If in doubt, do nowt.

I agree with Peter (Prospero). You are not responsible for putting this sticky mess on the customers property so why be responsible for removing it and risking problems?

If it is of some value and the customer wants it doing then get it done by a conservator. The institute of Conservation have a register here: http://www.conservationregister.com/

Two sage men.
I will follow your advice.

thank you

Jack

PS: thank you for the link John - bookmarked accordingly

strokebloke wrote:Two sage men.

It's the onions that make my eyes water.