White and gold picture frame with 23-karat gold leaf

White and gold is the steadiest pairing in classical framing: enough white to keep the wall quiet, enough metal to draw the eye back into the picture. This frame holds that balance in a wide 80 mm moulding, hand-painted white and gilded with two narrow bands of 23-karat gold leaf laid over bole by the water gilding method. I make every frame singly, cut and joined to the measurements of one artwork, and I keep the same working sequence whether it is going onto an oil on canvas, a watercolour or a collector's photograph. It sits with the rest of my gilded and partially painted picture frames.

Frame profile

At the artwork the moulding rises through a short cove onto a small fillet and reaches its highest point almost immediately, in a rounded crown standing close to the picture. From there the face falls away outwards in one long descent into a deep half-round hollow running close to a third of the width, and closes with a stepped descent of three narrow flats dropping in stages to the outer edge. Two narrow bands of gold leaf run the full length of the moulding against the white ground.

Specification

• Style: classical, white with partial gilding
• Finish: hand-painted white, sealed with a fine protective lacquer
• Gilding: 23-karat yellow gold leaf, water gilded over bole and burnished
• Moulding width: 80 mm
• Moulding depth: 42 mm
• Rabbet: 7 mm wide, 25 mm deep (maximum stretcher thickness)
• Material: solid low-tannin timber of the kind used in museum work and art conservation
• Corners: mitred at 45° and reinforced with wooden splines before gessoing
• Glass: supplied without glass as standard; archival glazing available as an add-on
• Backing: Dibond 3 mm on request
• Matting: acid-free foam board on request
• Mounting and hanging: spring clips as standard, brass plates on request; hanging cord as standard
• Suits: oils and acrylics on canvas, watercolours, prints, photographs, works on paper
• Lead time: 20–30 working days
• Made: by hand, to measure

The dimensions you type into the calculator are the dimensions of the artwork, not of the frame. I cut the rabbet 2 to 3 mm larger so the stretcher seats without pressure, which leaves the 7 mm rabbet covering roughly 4 to 5 mm of the edge. The outer dimensions of the finished frame are larger again by the width of the moulding on every side.

Which artworks and interiors it suits

The width carries a substantial painting: oils and acrylics on stretched canvas up to a 25 mm stretcher, in the open version without glass. Watercolours, prints, drawings, diplomas and photographs sit behind glass, with a mat if the work needs breathing space. A white face with gold lines is the safe choice when the picture already carries strong colour, because the frame draws a boundary without adding a second palette to the wall.

The crown standing beside the picture and the face falling away outwards is a reverse arrangement rather than a classical one, and it changes how the frame behaves: the highest line is the one nearest the artwork, so the moulding turns the eye inwards instead of leading it out to the wall, and a frame this wide reads lighter than its measurements suggest. I go into what that does to a painting in my article on Dutch frames and the reverse profile.

In an interior it reads neoclassical rather than baroque: pale panelled rooms, a Parisian flat, a study with dark furniture where the white breaks the weight, a bright apartment hung with a small collection.

Making and finishing

The moulding is milled from solid low-tannin timber, the species used in museum work because it releases nothing that would discolour a painting from behind over decades. Lengths are cut at 45°, joined with wooden splines and glued while the frame is still bare wood, so the corners are mechanically registered before anything goes on the surface. Only then does the frame move on to gessoing, sanding and the white paint, coat by coat, each one flatted back before the next.

The gold is water gilded. Bole is laid over the gesso as a fine, polishable clay ground, and the leaf is set into it wetted, leaf beside leaf with roughly a millimetre of overlap, which is one layer of gold and not several. A 23-karat leaf is about 80 by 80 mm, so for bands this narrow I cut it into strips on the gilder's cushion and lift each strip on a brush. Once dry, the gold is burnished with an agate stone. The full sequence is set out on my page about water gilding.

White is the one colour I do not seal with shellac and wax, because shellac warms into a cream tone over the years; the white is finished with a fine protective lacquer instead. The same moulding can be painted in any other colour from the studio paint range, in a satin sheen or a high gloss, and gilded with 22-karat moon gold, 12-karat white gold or 6-karat white gold instead of 23-karat yellow. The bole under the leaf can be red, yellow, grey or brown, and it shifts the tone the gold settles into. Add a note with the order and I will set it up.

How it differs from mass production

A machine-finished white frame is sprayed on a line, its corners are stapled or pinned, and its gold is a printed foil with no metal thickness to it. This one is jointed in wood before it is finished, so the mitre is a mechanical joint rather than glue holding two faces together, and it stays closed as adhesives age. The white is built up in layers over gesso, so the surface has depth instead of the flatness of a sprayed profile. The gold is real 23-karat leaf on bole, which is why it can be burnished and why it holds its colour rather than dulling. And the frame is cut to your artwork, not to a shelf size the artwork has to be trimmed or packed out to fit.

Functionality

As standard the frame is supplied without glass, as a setting for a canvas on a stretcher up to 25 mm thick. If your stretcher is deeper, or if you want the rabbet made shallower for a panel, I adjust it when I cut the moulding, so say so with the order.

The same moulding can also be made without a rabbet, as a floating or shadow frame: the canvas sits inside with a narrow gap around it and the side edges of the stretcher stay visible, which suits painters who carry the colour around onto the sides. I describe how that construction behaves in my article on the American box frame for a painting. Price and lead time for the floating version are quoted individually.

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

The artwork is held in the rabbet by spring clips, fitted to the back of the frame in the workshop. They rotate aside, so one work can come out and another go in without tools. Brass plates with screws are available on request instead: they are supplied loose with the screws, you fit them yourself once the work is in, and the fixing is permanent. This is not a menu choice, so add a note to the order if you want the brass plates.

Hanging orientation, portrait or landscape, is selected from the order menu, and the frame is prepared for that orientation only. Hanging cord is fitted as standard. A single D-ring hanger is available on request.

Made to measure

The price shown is the price per running metre of moulding. The perimeter of the picture is not the whole length a frame needs: the 45° mitres take additional length at each corner, and the wider the moulding, the more they take. The calculator works out the full consumption including corners, along with any add-ons you select.

Measure the artwork itself, width and height, to the nearest millimetre, and type those figures in. The calculator handles artworks up to 120 × 80 cm; anything larger is made to individual order, so send me the dimensions and I will price it. Lead time is 20–30 working days.