Because the collections have remained largely unaltered for nearly two centuries, our picture frames have remained much the same – apart from the accumulation of dirt and occasional damage to mouldings. When cleaning and repairing them, our aim is to preserve, wherever possible, any early finishes we find and retain all original details such as old glass, fixings and labelling.
Written by Jane Wilkinson, Head of Conservation
This frame is one of a pair containing Clérisseau capricci, which we replaced with facsimiles as part of a project in the Picture Room Recess. The frames, which are Carlo Maratta style with three different carved decorative patterns, are Italian and contemporary with the paintings, which were probably painted in the 1760s.
Below: Interior of an Ancient Chamber by Charles Louis Clerisseau (P129, Picture Room)
These paintings hang in a very inaccessible location and the facsimile project gave us a great opportunity to conserve the frames while they were off display. After careful inspection, it was evident that the top layer on the frames, although now uniformly brown, was in fact oil gilding. The dark appearance was most likely due to the discolouration of a layer of size on the gold and from a build-up of dirt over the years. Below the gold was a thin layer of cream coloured oil-based paint probably applied to give a uniform surface on which to lay the gold. Small losses to the surface revealed that below these two layers was the frames’ original eighteenth-century water gilding.
It’s always very exciting to find early gilding beneath layers like this but until you begin to remove the later schemes it’s impossible to know what the condition of the earlier gold will be. In addition, we always have to consider whether the later oil gilding might have been applied in Soane’s lifetime. If this is the case, we would try to preserve it. Luckily, in the case of the Clérisseau frames, remains of old numbering labels applied over the water gilding after Soane’s death indicated that the oil gilding, which did not extend under the labels, had been applied later and so a decision was made to take the frames back to their original water gilded scheme.
As an initial test, I removed the top two layers from a small area on the frame of P137, the pair to P129. This was done using a spirit-based stripper which effectively took the oil layers off without disrupting the water gilding. The results were very exciting because the water gilding below appeared to be in excellent condition.
Image (below): Test to remove top layer on the frame of P137.
As these results were so good I went ahead and removed the later layers from all the surfaces of the frames. Stripping back the flat surfaces and the hollows on the frames was fairly quick, but it was extremely slow and painstaking work removing the cream paint layer from the delicate carved decorations. However, it was also immensely satisfying to see the intricate carvings, previously clogged with paint, emerging lively and crisp once again.
Image (below): Detail showing frame of P129 partially stripped back to original water gilding.
During the work I found there were a few losses to the carved pin and leaf carved decoration and in a few places earlier repairs to these had been done with crude moulded composition. I removed these poor repairs and a carver fabricated a copy of the pattern so that the losses could be replaced. Apart from these only small repairs to some of the gilding were necessary.
Image (below): Sections of original and newly carved decoration.
Over the years I have conserved quite a number of the Museum’s frames that have had water gilding covered in oil gilding. There are a number of reasons why this might have been done: perhaps to cover the poor condition of earlier gilding, possibly as a result of changing fashions, or even as a cheap solution to repairs. In the case of these two delightful frames, it is difficult to understand why their exquisite water gilding was ever covered up but the gilding that has emerged from beneath the drab layers is beautiful and dazzling and, what is more, an extraordinary time capsule of eighteenth-century craftsmanship.
Image (below): Frame P129 after removal of paint and oil gilded layer and prior to final repairs and toning.
