Gold shadow box frame with a deep 40 mm rabbet

I make this frame for work that will not lie flat. The moulding is 18 mm wide and 45 mm thick, and the rabbet reaches 40 mm into it, deep enough to hold a thick stretcher, a mounted object or a gap of air behind glass. It is a deep frame because of what fits inside it, not because the moulding is heavy: from the front it is a slim gilded line 18 mm across. The face is water gilded in 22-karat gold leaf over grey bole and patinated by hand, cooler and paler than classic yellow gold. The other tones I work in are gathered in gold gilded picture frames.

Profile of the moulding

The inner edge on the artwork side is the highest point of the section. From there the face descends towards the outside in a convex bow whose swell sits below the inner edge, closing with the outer edge. The high point stands beside the picture rather than beside the wall, which makes this a reverse section: the frame turns the eye inwards. More on that in my article on Dutch frames and the reverse profile.

Specification

• Style: modern, reverse section
• Finish: 22-karat gold leaf on grey bole, hand-patinated
• Moulding width: 18 mm
• Moulding thickness (face to back): 45 mm
• Rabbet: 7 mm wide × 40 mm deep
• Material: timber low in tannins, used in conservation work
• Corner joining: mitred at 45° and reinforced with wooden splines
• Gilding: loose 22-karat gold leaf laid on water
• Glass, backing and matting: additional options, quoted individually
• Mounting and hanging: sprung clips, picture wire
• Suitable for: canvas paintings, works on paper, framed objects
• Lead time: 20–30 working days

I make the frame to the size of one particular work. The dimensions you enter in the calculator are those of the work itself. The frame is made 2 to 3 mm larger, the technical clearance needed to seat it, and the moulding then covers about 4 to 5 mm of its edge.

Which works and interiors it suits

The frame is at its best around objects. Forty millimetres of depth closes over a medal, a textile, an embroidery or a model, and spacers hold the glass clear of the surface. How they are chosen is set out in my guide to mounts and spacers.

Its second role is painting on canvas: the rabbet accepts a stretcher up to 40 mm thick, including supports that have been lined or reinforced. A face of 18 mm reads as an edge rather than decoration, so it sits quietly where a wide gilded moulding would take over. With a mount and glass it also suits prints, watercolours and photographs.

How I make and finish it

The order never changes. I cut the moulding at 45° and join the corners first, reinforcing them with wooden splines, because only a glued and stiffened frame holds its geometry around a rabbet this deep. Gesso follows, sanded to an even surface, then grey bole, then the gold.

The gilding is done with loose 22-karat gold leaf laid on water, leaf beside leaf. This gold, known as moon gold, is lighter and cooler than classic 23-karat. A leaf measures about 80 × 80 mm, so for a face this narrow it is cut with a knife on a gilder's cushion.

Patination, and where the pale lines come from

The antique tone is not painted over the top and not pressed from a die. I work on the gold itself, taking it along the road that gilding travels over decades on old frames, only faster.

The mechanism follows from the way the leaf is laid. The gold goes down with an overlap of about millimetre, so almost the whole surface is one leaf thick and only a narrow band carries twice that. As I work the surface the thinnest places give way first and the grey bole shows through, cooling the tone, while the double thickness along the overlap holds longer and leaves a paler, very fine stripe.

The result is a faint drawing of light lines in the rhythm of the cut leaf, a record of where each leaf began and ended. Old gilding acquires the same drawing by itself, after years, for the same reason.

How it differs from a mass-produced frame

Narrow gold mouldings sold at scale are usually aluminium sections, or board wrapped in metallic foil printed with a pattern of wear: one repeat running over kilometres of moulding. Here the drawing comes from the edges of the leaf, which fall differently every time, so two frames from this section share a tone and differ in the run of the lines.

Functionality

As standard I supply the frame without glass and without a backing, as a mount for stretched canvas. The work enters the rabbet from behind and sprung clips hold it. A rabbet 40 mm deep defines the contents: a support, an object or an empty space up to 40 mm thick.

I also make this section without a rabbet, as a floating frame, with a visible gap around the canvas. That construction is described in my guide to the floating picture frame.

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

Sprung clips are fitted as standard. They turn aside to let the work in and back to hold it, and they cope with anything from a thin board to a stretched canvas. Brass plates with screws are available on request and are supplied loose, for permanent fixing once the work is in place. Hanging orientation, vertical or horizontal, is chosen from the order menu. Picture wire is fitted as standard, and a single D-ring hanger can be fitted instead if you ask for it.

Ordering made to measure

The base price shown is the price per running metre of moulding. The perimeter of the artwork is not the whole length of moulding a frame consumes: mitres cut at 45 degrees take extra length at every corner, and the wider the moulding, the more they take. The calculator accounts for the full consumption of moulding including the corners, together with the options you select.

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 calculator prices the frame alone, without glazing: glass, backing and mount are matched to the particular work, so please send me a message if you want the piece framed under glass. Lead time is 20–30 working days, and when you order please give me the dimensions of the work and the thickness of its support.