Gilded photo frame in 23-karat gold leaf, made to measure

A gilded photo frame that carries real metal rather than pigment. The 13 mm face is water gilded by hand in genuine 23-karat gold leaf over red bole, and the sides are hand painted in black or in yellow ochre. Behind it the moulding is 25 mm thick with a rebate 20 mm deep, so it takes a photograph or print on a rigid support as readily as a painting on a standard stretcher. It sits among my photo frames, and I make each one to a single work.

The moulding profile

The face is flat and smooth, 13 mm wide, and gilded over its whole width, so the gold reads as one continuous bright line with nothing breaking it. At the outer edge the face turns square into the side, which measures 25 mm from the face to the back of the moulding and is hand painted. The side is almost twice the width of the face, so I finish it as a surface in its own right: from the front the frame is a fine gold line, from an angle a tall band of colour beside the metal. The section is machine-milled; everything on its surface is then done by hand.

Specification

• Style: plain narrow profile, machine-milled
• Face finish: 23-karat gold leaf on red bole, water gilded, sealed with shellac and wax
• Side finish: hand painted in black or yellow ochre; other colours to order
• Moulding width: 13 mm
• Moulding thickness (face to back): 25 mm
• Rebate: 7 mm wide x 20 mm deep, so the framed work may be up to 20 mm thick
• Material: timber with a low tannin content, as used in museum and conservation framing
• Joinery: mitred at 45 degrees, reinforced with timber splines before gessoing
• Gilding: water gilding, 23-karat leaf laid one leaf at a time over gesso and red bole
• Customisation: side colour, timber species, a different section to order
• Glass, archival backing and matting: available as an add-on, outside the order menu
• Mounting and hanging: sprung clips and picture wire as standard; brass plates or a single D-ring on request
• Lead time: 20 to 30 working days
• Suitable for: photographs and prints on a rigid support, drawings, documents, canvas on a standard stretcher

You give the calculator the dimensions of the artwork, not of the finished frame. I build the frame 2 to 3 mm larger than the size you enter, so the work seats without strain, and the moulding then overlaps the artwork by about 4 to 5 mm.

What it suits

A photograph rarely wants a wide moulding competing with it, yet a plain black edge can leave a good print looking provisional. A narrow gilded face answers both: 13 mm of real gold marks the image as something kept rather than pinned up. Gold over red bole gives a warm tone with a trace of red reading through the metal. Black sides are crisp and graphic, and suit modern photography and contemporary hangs; yellow ochre sides are quieter and closer to the gold, and suit older photographs, sepia prints and warm-toned rooms. The frame also takes drawings, watercolours, documents and paintings on a standard stretcher.

How I make it

I cut the lengths at 45 degrees and join the corners with timber splines before any finishing starts, so the frame behaves as one body. The timber has a low tannin content, of the kind used in museum work and conservation, so it carries no acids across to the work. Then the gesso goes on, coat after coat, smoothed back to an even, closed surface; on a face this narrow any flaw in the ground would run its entire length.

Over the gesso goes the bole, red in this case, which decides the final tone of the gold. The gilding is carried out on water, leaf by leaf with a slight overlap, in 23-karat gold. A sheet of leaf is roughly 80 x 80 mm, so for a face 13 mm wide I cut it on the gilder's cushion with a knife. The gold is sealed with shellac and wax, and the sides are painted by hand and finished the same way. I set out the technique in my note on gilded picture frames and hand gilding.

How this differs from a factory frame

Ready-made gold photo frames are extruded aluminium, foil-wrapped board or moulded polystyrene, and the gold on them is paint or imitation leaf. Gold leaf answers changing light where a coating stays flat, and imitation leaf browns under its varnish over the years. The second difference is dimensional: this frame is built to the measurements of one work rather than cut from a stock length in standard sizes.

What the frame takes

The frame is supplied without glass as standard: the work enters the rebate from behind and sprung clips hold it. The 20 mm depth is generous for a narrow moulding, which lets one section serve both a photograph under glass with a mat behind it and a painting on a standard stretcher. For heavier stretchers I gild the same 13 mm face on a deeper moulding, 38 mm thick with a 30 mm rebate: the thin gold picture frame with a deep rebate. This section can also be made without a rebate, as a floating frame with a visible gap around the canvas, described 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 artwork. 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 to measure

Measure the work to the millimetre and enter those dimensions in the calculator. The base price shown is the price per running metre of moulding. The perimeter of the artwork is not the full length a frame needs: corners cut at 45 degrees take up more length, and the wider the moulding, the more each corner consumes. The calculator accounts for the full run including corners, together with the options you choose.

For a moulding of this width the calculator handles artwork up to a perimeter of 200 cm; anything larger I make to individual order, so send me the dimensions. It prices the frame alone: glass, archival backing and matting are matched to the particular work, so write to me if you want it framed under glass. Lead time is 20 to 30 working days.