Wide Silver Picture Frame Gilded with Palladium Leaf

This is the widest of my white metal frames: a broad, flat face carrying genuine palladium leaf, made to measure for one particular work. Palladium reads as a clean, cool silver, and unlike sterling silver leaf it holds that colour instead of darkening with age, which is why I reach for it when a white metal has to stay bright for decades. Across a 50 mm face the leaf becomes one uninterrupted band of light around the picture. It belongs to my range of gilded picture frames.

The moulding profile

At the artwork side the moulding opens with a fine chamfer, a narrow bevel taken at a shallow angle. Beyond it runs the flat face, the widest plane of the profile and the highest point it reaches. From there the surface turns into a gently falling plane angled outwards, and a low outer edge closes the moulding. Because the high point sits beside the artwork rather than out at the margin, the gilded surface steps up next to the picture and then falls away from it, which carries the eye inwards. The flat face holds an even sheet of reflection; the falling plane meets the light at a different angle and reads a shade darker, so the two separate rather than merging into one expanse of metal.

Specification

• Style: flat-faced profile with a chamfered inner edge, machine-milled
• Face finish: palladium leaf, water gilded on a gesso ground, sealed with traditional shellac and wax
• Moulding width: 50 mm
• Moulding thickness (face to back): 22 mm
• Rebate: 7 mm wide × 15 mm deep
• Material: timber with a low tannin content, of the type used in museum and conservation framing
• Joinery: mitred at 45° and reinforced with timber splines, before any ground is applied
• Glass, archival backing and matting: available as an add-on, quoted individually
• Mounting and hanging: sprung clips as standard, picture wire, portrait or landscape
• Lead time: 20 to 30 working days
• Suitable for: works on paper, photographs, prints and canvases on a slim stretcher

Enter the dimensions of the artwork itself into the calculator, to the millimetre. I build the frame about 2 to 3 mm larger than the size you give me, so the work seats without forcing, and the moulding then covers roughly 4 to 5 mm of the edge on each side.

What it suits

A cool white metal sits beside grey, blue and black without warming them, which no gold can do. Black and white photography, graphite and charcoal drawing, architectural work, etchings and restrained contemporary abstraction all take this frame comfortably, as does oil and acrylic in cool tones where a yellow gold would fight the picture. Fifty millimetres is a real presence, so the frame reads as a deliberate border rather than a thin line, which suits a work with the scale to carry it. In a modern interior the palladium picks up steel and aluminium fittings; in a period room it holds its own against gilt without imitating it. If your piece is on paper and must not touch the glazing, my guide to mounts and spacers explains how the package is built up behind the glass.

Making and finishing

The mitres are cut at 45° and reinforced with timber splines before any ground goes on, so the corners are locked by the joint, not the finish. Then come several coats of gesso, rubbed back between coats until the face is genuinely flat, because on a plane this wide any ripple shows the moment the metal goes on. Over the gesso goes the coloured bole, the clay ground that gives water gilding its depth. Palladium leaf arrives in squares of roughly 80 × 80 mm, only a little wider than this face, so each is cut on the gilder's cushion before laying. It goes on one leaf at a time onto wetted bole, each leaf overlapping its neighbour by about a millimetre, and that single laid layer is the metal you see. The surface is then sealed with shellac and wax. I set the process out in full on my water gilding page.

How it differs from a mass-produced frame

A factory moulding in this shape arrives already finished, in fixed lengths, its silver colour a foil or sprayed lacquer over a synthetic base: printed on, identical everywhere, reflecting nothing. Here the timber is jointed to your measurements first and finished afterwards, so the gesso and the leaf run across the mitres as one unbroken surface with no line at the corner. The metal is real, so it reflects rather than glowing flat, shifts as you move past it, and ages by settling rather than peeling.

Functionality

The frame is supplied without glass as standard. What governs how much it holds is the depth of the rebate rather than the 22 mm thickness of the moulding: at 15 mm it takes a work on paper behind glass with a mount and backing board, a photograph or print mounted on board, or a canvas on a slim stretcher bar. A deep gallery stretcher will not seat at this depth, so send me the thickness of the bar before ordering and I will confirm the fit. The frame can also be made with no rebate at all, as a floating frame with a shadow gap around the canvas; I cover that in my guide to 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

As standard the frame is fitted with sprung clips, which turn to release and make it easy to change the canvas. On request I fit brass plates with screws instead, supplied loose for you to install for a permanent fixing. For hanging, the frame takes picture wire as standard, with a single D-ring hanger available on request; you choose portrait or landscape orientation when you order.

Ordering made to measure

The base price shown on the page is the price per running metre of moulding. The perimeter of the artwork is not the full length of moulding a frame needs: the corners, cut at 45°, take up additional length, and the wider the moulding, the more they consume. The calculator accounts for the full run of moulding including its corners, plus the fittings and options you choose. Glass, archival backing and matting are quoted separately.

For this moulding width the calculator handles artworks up to 180 cm around the perimeter; anything larger is made to individual order, so send me the dimensions and I will price it. Lead time is 20 to 30 working days. If your order is tied to a date or an exhibition, get in touch first and I will tell you what is realistic.