Restoration of a Georgian Frame
It will come as no suprise to anyone that it has now been six months since I updated anything on this . However if there were any project out there worthy of the comeback post- it is the Georgian Frame which I had the pleasure and adventure of restoring a couple of months ago.
A corner image of the frame gives you an idea of how the frame appeared when it arrived.
My client, an Edinburgh picture dealer, had a Georgian frame, circa 1805, in need of restoration. While the surface was original, it was very badly chipped in many places through to the gesso and wood. The client wanted as much of the old surface kept as possible and for the frame to have a distressed finish. A particularly attractive feature of the frame was the presence of scalloped shells in the corners - except that three of them were missing! Also, the sides of the frame presented some problems; due to the way the frame had been constructed with two layers of wood sandwiched together; the structure had weakened over time and faultline cracks were appearing through to the gesso all round the sides.
Getting started; one of the first tasks was creating the replica ornamentations. Usually I take castings using dental product called Bracon, however I decided i was going to experiment with reusable Gelflex as I hoped it might pick out even finer details.
Gelflex has to be heated to a specific temperature, before being poured over the the item it is taking a cast of. So in order to do this I had to remove the last remaining ornament and find a container that I could attach it to the base of that would provide me with a good cast (you can also build walls around the item using modelling clay).
Having left the gelfex to set for it was then ready to use. I made more ornaments than needed here out of compo so that I could choose the best four. The detail picked out by the compo in the gelflex moulding was fantastic. It is particularly useful that the silicone rubber flexes over the piece you are modelling from, as a common problem with Bracon is cracking when attempting to remove or bend and therefore not getting the same level of accuracy in detail.
This is an image of the ornament before it had been gilded. You can see from the image the detail which had been highlighted by the silicone mould, particularly around the edges.
The next step was to start repairing the damaged inner and outer edges. followed by tidying the outside. It was agreed in the bried that the restoration was to be kept simple, and thus to keep the frame still looking ‘distressed’. Therefore the plan had been to simply lightly sand the outside of the frame and apply a layer of yellow bole so it would be in keeping with the aesthetic of the frame while also brightening it up from it’s current state which was grubby and time worn.
However this was not to be. The more I tried the faster I failed. and it became apparent that the quickest way to proceed was to remove everything from the outer sides of this frame.
The reasons for this being;
Rusty nails clawing their way through the wood and gesso
A fault line where two pieces of wood had been sandwiched together to create the final design, moving over time and putting pressure on the existing gesso
Large holes in the existing wood
It was fun
So the next job, (after removing the original gesso from al four sides) was to wood fill wherever possible, including some of the join line and the space around the nails.
Then start applying quick thin coats of gesso. Followed by a final yellow bole finish.
We came to the conclusion that the frame must be dated early 1800s. This would match up with my clients art work and my thoughts on the general structure and state of the existing frame beneath all the gesso. This got me thinking exactly how incredible it is that after hundreds of years, and all of the gunk an damage on the outside of that frame, underneath it bare clean wood. Not in the best of conditions mind you, but it felt amazing to think how well the gesso had preserved it.
Yellow Bole finish around the outside of the frame
The new gesso layer improved things massively for the outise of the frame. Furthermore it made the recreation and rebuilding of the outer edges easier. Why did I not start this way! It’s the journey not the destination right?!
The gold was then applied over the rebuilt outer and inside edges. These had been ‘filled’ with gesso putty and touched up with yellow bole, before gilding.
Complete before ornaments attached
Last step was to gild the ornaments before applying them to the frame. Furthermore, in order to attach it, I built a small compo outcrop which the ornamet was to sit on, thus achieving the original effect that the frame had when it arrived.
In order to maintain the brief and keep the frame looking old and untouched, a then applied a light wash of tinted shellac and Rambouliett wax to the surface and ornaments to take back the shine of the gold.
The Final piece. The existing damage is entirely concealed. The damage beneath is stabilised and it has an entirely fresh outside coat of gesso and bole, entirely within keeping with the work.
Please check out The Georgian Print Rooms Edinburgh georgianprints.co.uk for a wonderful collection of historic art.