Slim gold picture frame with a deep rabbet for thick canvases

This frame is built for work an ordinary moulding will not take: paintings on thick stretchers, photographs framed with visible depth, objects meant to be shown inside a frame rather than flattened against its back. The moulding is 18 mm wide and 45 mm thick, and the rabbet reaches 40 mm into it. It is a deep frame because of what it will hold, an object or an air space up to 40 mm thick, not because the moulding is heavy. The face is gilded in genuine 23-karat gold leaf and the sides are black, so the work is edged by a fine gold line with a dark, quiet mass behind it. The rest of the range in this tone sits under gold gilded picture frames.

The moulding profile

The highest point of the section is the edge at the artwork. From there the face descends towards the outer edge in a convex arc whose swell sits below the level of that edge, so the full height of the profile falls at the picture rather than at the perimeter. The arc closes at the outer edge, where the moulding turns into a flat side measuring 45 mm from face to back. With a face this narrow the side gives the frame its body, so I finish it as a surface in its own right. I write about this inverted arrangement in my note on reverse and coved frames.

Specification

• Style: modern, minimal, reverse section
• Face finish: 23-karat yellow gold leaf on yellow bole, unpatinated, shellac and wax
• Side finish: black, satin sheen, shellac and wax
• Personalisation: side colour agreed before cutting
• Moulding width: 18 mm
• Moulding thickness, face to back: 45 mm
• Rabbet: 7 mm wide × 40 mm deep
• Material: timber with a low tannin content, used in museum work and conservation
• Corners: mitred at 45°, reinforced with wooden splines before gessoing
• Glass, backing and mount: outside the calculator, quoted individually; normally 2 mm anti-reflective glass with a UV filter, up to 60×80 cm
• Retention: spring clips fitted as standard
• Hanging: picture wire, portrait or landscape
• Lead time: 20–30 working days
• Suits: thick stretchers, photography, prints, documents, objects

I make the frame to the dimensions of the artwork. Enter the measurements of the work itself into the calculator: I add 2–3 mm of working clearance, so the piece enters the rabbet without strain, and the moulding then covers roughly 4–5 mm of its edge.

Which works and interiors it suits

The deep rabbet answers the problem that returns most often in the workshop: a painting on a heavy stretcher no ready-made moulding will accept. Without glass this is a setting for oil and acrylic painting; with glass it takes watercolour, prints, photography and documents; with spacers inside the rabbet it becomes a case for an object, a medal, a textile.

The narrow face keeps the frame from competing with the work or imposing a period style on the room. It settles into modern interiors, gallery and office spaces, and rooms held in white and deep grey where the gold is the only warm note.

Making and finishing

I cut the lengths at 45° and join them with wooden splines before any finishing begins, because the corner has to be closed before the ground goes on. The timber has a low tannin content, of the kind used in museum work and art conservation, so it carries no acids across to the work enclosed inside it. The frame is then gessoed, sanded and covered with yellow bole, which gives the leaf a resilient bed and a warm tone that reads through the metal.

The gilding is carried out with 23-karat loose gold leaf by the water gilding method, one leaf at a time with a slight overlap. A leaf measures roughly 80 × 80 mm, so against a face 18 mm wide I cut it on the gilder’s cushion and lay it in narrow strips. I leave the gold unpatinated and seal it with shellac and wax. The sides are painted black and finished the same way, for a satin sheen. I make the same section in white gold as well, as a white gold picture frame, with a cooler reflection.

How it differs from a mass produced frame

Slim gold mouldings sold in the trade are usually extruded aluminium or foil-wrapped board. Here each frame starts as bare timber: cutting, splining, gesso, bole, gold, then the sides. Small differences in the way the gold falls from one frame to the next follow from laying metal by hand.

Function

As standard the frame comes without glass or backing board, as a setting for a stretched canvas: the work enters the rabbet from behind and spring clips hold it. For work on paper the 40 mm depth lets me fit spacers and hold the glass clear of the surface.

On larger formats I stiffen the construction with an inner frame 20 mm thick, seated inside the rabbet: about 20 mm then remains for the glazing and the framed object together. The same section can also be made without a rabbet, as a floating frame with a visible gap around the canvas, described in my note on floating frames 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

Spring clips are fitted as standard, installed in the workshop and rotated aside to seat or swap the painting without dismantling the frame. Brass plates with screws are available on request, supplied loose with the screws included, for you to fit once the work is in place; this is the permanent retention used in exhibition mounting.

Hanging orientation, portrait or landscape, is selected from the order menu, and the frame is fitted only in the chosen orientation. Picture wire is standard; a single D-ring hanger is available on request.

Ordering to measure

The base price shown is the price per running metre of moulding. The perimeter of the artwork is not the whole length a frame needs: corners cut at 45° consume additional length, and the wider the moulding, the more each corner takes. The calculator accounts for the full consumption including corners and any 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. It prices the frame alone, without glazing: glass, backing and mount are matched to the particular work, so send me a message if you want the piece framed under glass. Lead time is 20–30 working days. When you order, please give me the dimensions of the work and the thickness of its support.