Deep gold picture frame with 23-karat gold leaf

A deep gold picture frame, made to the size of one particular painting. The face is 30 mm wide and the section runs 50 mm back, with a rabbet 43 mm deep that takes a stretcher up to 4 cm thick, keys included. The face is gilded in 23-karat yellow gold leaf over a yellow bole and left bright, without patination, so the metal keeps its full reflection.

The moulding and its proportions

This moulding is deeper than it is wide. From the front you see a narrow face 30 mm across, while the section runs 50 mm back, so the frame stands further off the wall than its visible width suggests. That proportion does two things at once: it keeps the frame discreet from the front and leaves real structural room inside. At this thickness the lateral flank becomes a surface you see from the side and at an angle, which is why the treatment of the sides is a decision in its own right rather than a detail: they are painted as standard, and I gild them to order.

Specification

• Style: deep section with a narrow face
• Face finish: 23-karat gold leaf over yellow bole, left bright, without patination
• Side finish: painted; gilded sides to order
• Moulding width: 30 mm
• Moulding thickness (face to back): 50 mm
• Rabbet: 7 mm wide × 43 mm deep
• Material: seasoned timber low in tannins, of the kind used in museum and conservation work
• Corner joining: mitred at 45 ° and reinforced with wooden splines
• Ground under the gold: gesso and bole, built up in layers
• Glass, backing and matting: additional options, individually quoted
• Mounting and hanging: sprung clips and cord as standard
• Suitable for: oil and acrylic paintings on canvas, photographs, prints and posters

I make the frame to the size of one specific painting. The dimensions you enter in the calculator are the dimensions of the artwork itself: I make the frame 2 to 3 mm larger, which gives the technical clearance needed to seat the work, and the moulding then covers about 4 to 5 mm of its edge.

Which artworks and interiors it suits

This is a frame for painting on canvas, and first of all for oil and acrylic work on a stretcher. A rabbet 43 mm deep takes supports that most ready-made frames will not close over: deep gallery stretchers, keyed stretchers, canvas mounted on a workshop frame. The same depth lets you frame a photograph, a print or a poster on a rigid backing. If you are weighing up which construction suits your canvas, I compare the options in my guide to types of picture frames for canvas paintings.

Because the face is narrow, the gold reads as a border rather than a wide decorative surround: it takes no field away from the painting and does not compete with the composition. At the same time 23-karat gold left without patination is the most intense and most classical of the finishes I work with, so the frame visibly raises the standing of the work. It holds up on a pale wall and on a dark one, in a classical room and in a modern one where it is meant to be the single warm note of metal. The other tones and widths are gathered in picture frames gold gilded and partially painted.

How I make and finish it

The profile is milled from seasoned timber low in tannins, of the kind used in museum and conservation work. I cut the moulding at 45 ° and join the corners, reinforcing them with wooden splines. The order of work matters here: the frame is a finished structure before I begin preparing the surface, so the corner joints close under the layers of ground and do not show through the gold later.

On the assembled frame I build up gesso layer by layer and sand it smooth, then lay yellow bole over it. The bole is not simply a bed for the leaf: it shows through the gold and shares in its final tone. Yellow holds the warm, sunlit character of 23-karat gold instead of cooling it or pulling it towards red.

The gilding is done with loose 23-karat yellow gold leaf laid on water. A leaf measures about 80 × 80 mm, so for a moulding of this width it is cut with a knife on a gilder's cushion and laid leaf beside leaf with an overlap of about 1 mm. The gold is left without patination, which means the surface beneath it has to be true: any unevenness in the gesso would show in the reflection. I set out the technique, and how it differs from the other methods, on my page about water gilding.

How it differs from a mass-produced frame

Frames of this depth are usually made industrially from an extruded profile finished with a sprayed metallic coating or with an imitation leaf of copper and zinc. That kind of surface darkens and shifts in tone over the years, and at 50 mm of section a hollow core works loose and opens at the corners. Here the gold is real metal in leaf form, laid on water over bole, and the structure is solid and reinforced with splines, which matters on a large format where the frame has to carry the weight of the stretcher. I make each frame myself, to the size of one painting rather than to a stock format, and the schedule cannot be compressed: gesso, bole and gold each need time to dry between stages.

Functionality

As standard I make this frame without glass: the painting enters the rabbet from behind and stays open, as in classical framing for oils. A rabbet 43 mm deep means the same frame will hold a thin painting panel and a deep stretcher; with thinner work the painting can sit flush with the face of the frame or be set back inside it. For supports of unusual thickness I cut the rabbet to measure once the dimension is agreed.

The same profile can be made without a rabbet, as a floating frame, with the painting set inside the moulding and a visible gap around the canvas. At this section depth the spatial effect is pronounced. I explain the construction and its variants here: floating picture frame for canvas art.

Complete framing – additional options

Every frame I make can be completed with full archival and museum-quality framing: anti-reflective UV-filtering glass (four classes to choose from), acid-free museum mat board, spacers wrapped in acid-free paper and a Dibond backing. This kind of mounting protects the work from light, acids and distortion. I set out the full glass and material specification on a separate page: archival and museum framing for paintings and photographs. All components are available at extra cost, as an individual quote on request.

Mounting and hanging

I hold the painting in the frame with sprung clips that turn aside when you change the work, which makes the frame easy to handle. On request I fit permanent, screwed brass plates instead. For hanging, I attach cord as standard, in portrait or landscape orientation; a single D-ring on request.

Ordering made to measure

The base price shown on the site is the price per running metre of moulding. The perimeter of the painting is not the full length the frame needs: corners cut at 45 degrees take extra length, and the wider the moulding, the more they take. The calculator accounts for the full moulding consumption with corners and for any options you choose, so you only need to enter the dimensions of your painting to within 0.1 cm. The calculator accepts artwork up to a perimeter of 200 cm, the limit set for a moulding of this width; larger formats I make to individual order, so please write to me first. The lead time is 20 to 30 working days.