Our Hand-Made Replica Frames

Frames are our passion! Availability or size may limit the use of antique frames. In our workshop in Gers, we make frames to any specification, using traditional techniques as well as altering and restoring antique frames.
Our expert carvers, gilders and cabinet-makers create the highest quality replica frames of all periods and finishes – from the simplest to the most ornamental.

BESPOKE FRAMING

We have over 30 years of experience in framing and provide valuable advice on the most suitable frame for your artwork. A painting may require a specific frame pattern. Using an antique frame stock, a historically appropriate frame model is researched to reproduce. The reproduction frame is made from a section drawing after careful observation of the antique frame using traditional skills of joinery, carving and gilding, as well as staining and polishing. We fashion the frames in carved wood or using our stock of moulds and finish in gold leaf or lacquer. The patina is the last touch to suit them to the artwork. Framing ideas can be demonstrated in the atelier, showing selected frames with the artwork.  We also offer a digital design service showing your art work in the frame prior to purchase, if the painting is not available, or can not be transported or shipped.

ANTIQUE FRAME RESTAURATION
Frames can be enhanced by sensitive restoration. The carved and gilded surface of the picture frame is delicate and vulnerable and is likely to have suffered over the course of time. We are able to undertake carving and gilding repairs whilst respecting the original surface and the integrity of the frame. This work may involve rejoining the frames first. The most common deterioration is the effect of water and impacts on gesso and wet or dry rot, infestations or damages at the wood. We replace damaged patterns by taking casts  from the original remaining patterns to replace damaged or missing areas of moulding. Where this is not possible, new replacement mouldings can be carved or fashioned in wood, or gesso. Gilt and lacquer finishes can be cleaned and retouched or replaced to match the patina of age in the original. Antique frames can either be adapted to fit a painting or reproduced as an ancient template.

MONTAGE OFTHE PICTURE INTO THE FRAME

Old picture framing often contain backing and mount boards that have a high level of acid. This acid transfers from the boards to the art work causing it to discolour and degrade. The replacement of inappropriate materials is essential for the preservation of works of art. The materials can be safely removed and replaced with acid-free conservation grade boards that protect the artwork and prevent any further damage. We use always museum-proved methods of mounting of the pictures, depending on the technique the artists used. Broken and missing glazing can be replaced with UV glass, Tru Vue Museum Glass ®. We highly recommend using of UV-protection glass at framing of works on paper. We observe, almost every day, how harmful can be UV light contained in the sunlight for art works. It is always advisable to check old framing for UV protection and acidic materials.

 

ABOUT FRAMES 

A frame per se, is something completely natural. We all often encircle or draw a frame around something sketched or written down, even if „unconsciously“ doodling. Hence, a border around a painted picture is becoming quite obvious.  One could assume that it must be a very old phenomenon. We know that ornamented borders have been used to define motifs, for around 4,000 years or more.

However, the ancestors of a picture frame, as we know it today arises first in the Middle Ages, around the 11th century in the medieval altarpiece art.

Over the centuries the framing evolved further on. Relatively soon detached itself from architecture and became an important accompaniment of tableaux.  The spoanisch writer and philosopher Ortega y Gasset writes in his Meditations on the Frame :   “Pictures live housed within their frames. That association of picture and frame is not an accidental one. Each has need of the other. A picture without a frame has the air about it of a naked, despoiled man. Its contents seem to spill out over the four sides of the canvas and dissolve into the atmosphere. By the same token, the frame constantly demands a picture with which to fill its interior, and does so to such an extent that, in the absence of one, the frame will tend to convert whatever happens to be visible within it into a picture. (….) The frame is not the picture’s clothing, because clothing covers up the body, whereas the frame, on the contrary, shows the painting off.“

A picture frame plays an important role, evoking a period and style through its ornament and patinated gilding, profile and decorative surface.
Well matched with a painting, the frame adds context and defines the significance and origin of a picture. Not least, it is an expression of the appreciation for the painting, its importance for the owner. A poorly framed picture detracts from its appreciation and value.

The Pharaon Tutankhamun destroying his enemies. Painting on wood, length: 43 cm. Egyptian Museum of Cairo
The Pharaon Tutankhamun destroying his enemies. Painting on wood, length: 43 cm. Egyptian Museum of Cairo
Paumgartner altarpiece, oil on wood, 157 cm × 248 cm. Alte Pinakothek, Munich
Paumgartner altarpiece, oil on wood, 157 cm × 248 cm. Alte Pinakothek, Munich