White and gold picture frame with gilded sight edge, 70 mm

This is a white and gold picture frame, made to the size of one particular artwork. The moulding is 70 mm wide and 40 mm thick from face to back, one of the broadest profiles I keep in the workshop. The whole zone next to the painting, from the edge of the work through a narrow hollow to a soft half-round, is water gilded in 22-karat moon gold leaf over a grey bole ground. The rest of the face is hand painted in an off-white, so the gold stays close to the work while the white carries the eye outwards. Frames built on this pairing of paint and leaf sit together in my picture frames gold gilded and partially painted.

The moulding profile

At the artwork side the face begins at the lowest point of the whole profile. From there a narrow hollow opens, and out of it rises a soft half-round that falls back to exactly the level it started from. The gilding covers this entire zone and ends at the half-round. Beyond it the face lifts into a broad, gentle swell drawn like a bent stem, running to the outer edge. The side of the moulding is deeply undercut and closes with two steps, the second of which forms a foot. At 70 mm the painted part of the face reads as one continuous curve.

Specification

• Style: wide convex profile with a gilded inner edge
• Face finish: hand-painted off-white with a satin sheen
• Gilding: 22-karat moon gold leaf over grey bole, across the sight edge, hollow and half-round, lightly patinated; 23-karat yellow or 6-karat white gold available instead
• Bole colour: grey as standard, nine colours available
• Moulding width: 70 mm
• Moulding thickness (face to back plane): 40 mm
• Rebate: 7 mm wide, 10 mm or 20 mm deep, chosen at order
• Material: seasoned, low-tannin wood used in museum work and art conservation
• Corner joinery: mitred at 45 degrees, reinforced with wooden splines
• Ground: gesso and bole, built up in layers
• Glass, backing and mount: available separately, priced individually
• Mounting and hanging: sprung clips as standard, picture wire hanging
• Suitable for: oil and acrylic on stretchers, painting panels, photographs and prints on rigid supports

I make the frame to the dimensions of your artwork. Enter the size of the work itself into the calculator; I build the frame 2–3 mm larger, which gives the clearance needed to seat the piece, and the moulding covers its edge by roughly 4–5 mm.

Suitable artworks and interiors

A 70 mm moulding needs a work that can carry it. It does its best with oil and acrylic painting on stretchers, with portraits, still lifes and landscapes of clear composition, and with larger formats. On small, delicate works on paper this width usually outweighs what it surrounds.

The white is broken and slightly quietened, so it does not glare against the wall. The gilded zone puts a metallic reflection exactly at the edge of the work, and moon gold holds it in a paler, cooler register than classic yellow gold. The frame suits light, modern rooms and gallery walls, and also classical interiors where gilding across the whole face would be too heavy. If you are framing oil painting in particular, I set out how I approach it on my page about framing oil paintings.

How it is made

The order of work is fixed. I machine the wooden profile, then mitre the corners at 45 degrees and reinforce them with wooden splines. Only once the frame is assembled do I lay on the gesso, sand it smooth, and apply the bole to the band that will take the leaf. The gilding is done in 22-karat moon gold leaf, laid on water, leaf beside leaf with a small overlap, then lightly patinated so the grey bole shows through in places and quiets the tone. I paint the white face by hand afterwards, in layers, to a satin sheen.

The bole colour is a real decision rather than a cosmetic one: grey cools and quiets the gold, red warms it, black deepens the contrast. The same is true of the leaf, since 22-karat is paler and slightly silvery, 23-karat gives the strongest classical brilliance, and 6-karat runs to a cool, almost chrome-like tone. The full process is set out on my page about water gilding.

How it differs from mass production

The shape of the moulding is milled by machine, as it is in every workshop. The difference starts afterwards. A ready-made frame carries its gold as a foil or a lacquer that imitates metal, and its corners are glued and stapled. Here the gold is real leaf laid on water over a multi-layer gesso and bole ground, and the corners are cut and splined before any ground goes on.

Functionality

The frame is supplied without glass, prepared for a stretched canvas. Rebate depth is chosen from the order menu: 10 mm for thin panels and painting boards, or 20 mm for a standard stretcher. That figure, not the 40 mm thickness of the moulding, decides how thick a work the frame will take, since the rest goes into the undercut side and the foot. I can also make this profile without a rebate, as a floating frame, where the painting stands on a spacer with a visible gap around the canvas. I describe the difference 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, corners included, along with any extras you select.

Give the dimensions of the artwork to the nearest millimetre, for example 30.3 × 40.7 cm. 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. Production time is 20 to 30 working days.