Framing
Conservation framing, made to the work
Mouldings chosen for the work rather than the room, in wood, gilded finish or a plain museum profile. Every material that touches the work is stable and every step is reversible.
Framing & Care
A frame is
a conservation
decision
Most damage to art in Indian homes is done slowly, by humidity, sunlight and a cheap mount board, long before anyone notices. Framing is where that is either prevented or caused.
What we do
AB / CARE
Glazing
Ultraviolet filtering glass or acrylic
Glass for clarity, acrylic where weight or safety decides it. Museum grade anti reflective options where a work sits opposite a window and would otherwise be unviewable.
Mounting
Acid free, hinged, never trimmed
Rag mount board, Japanese tissue hinges and wheat starch paste. A work is never cut down to fit a frame, and a sheet already trimmed is documented rather than hidden.
Conservation
Cleaning, repair, relining
Surface cleaning, tear repair, consolidation of flaking paint, and structural relining where a conservator judges it necessary. Everything done is written into the condition record.
Lighting
Seeing the work as it was painted
Picture lights and track planned for angle, colour temperature and colour rendering. Bad lighting flattens a good painting more completely than a bad frame.
Installation
Hung, levelled and secured
Correct fixings for the wall, security fittings where a work warrants them, and a hanging height chosen for how the room is actually used rather than a rule of thumb.
The conditions that actually matter
AB / CONDITIONS
This part is physics, not preference. Coastal humidity is the principal adversary in Mumbai, and its damage is slow, cumulative and expensive to reverse.
Humidity
Aim for roughly 45 to 55 percent relative humidity and, more importantly, keep it steady. Repeated swings expand and contract paper, canvas and wood at different rates and are more destructive than a constant imperfect level. Mould and foxing follow sustained damp.
Light
Never direct sunlight. Light damage is cumulative and irreversible: nothing brings a faded pigment back. Works on paper, watercolour, textiles and photographs are dramatically more sensitive than oil on canvas, and are the works most often hung in the brightest room.
Where not to hang
Exterior walls, which carry damp through in the monsoon. Bathrooms and kitchens. The direct throw of an air conditioner, which creates a local dry spot and a hard temperature edge across one part of the surface. Above a working fireplace or a heat source.
Height
Centre the work at roughly 145 to 155 centimetres from the floor, which sits at average eye level. Hang lower in rooms where people are seated. Over furniture, leave about 15 to 20 centimetres between the furniture and the frame so they read as one group rather than two.
Handling
Two hands, two people for anything large, and never by the top of the frame alone. Gloves for gilded frames and for photographs. Move a work only when you already know where it is going to be put down.
On placement, and on belief
AB / PLACEMENT
Many clients place art according to vastu shastra, and some according to feng shui. We work with those requirements without argument: if a work is to hang on a particular wall for reasons that matter to your household, that is the wall it hangs on, and we will choose and light a work that belongs there.
We keep the two kinds of guidance clearly separate. The humidity, light and handling rules above are measurable and apply everywhere. Directional and subject guidance is a tradition, and we treat it as your decision rather than our expertise. Where the two pull in different directions we will tell you plainly, because a wall that is auspicious and also damp will still destroy the painting.
We are framers and dealers, not vastu consultants. Where you have your own consultant, we take their brief and work to it.
Enquiries
Send a photograph of the work and the wall
We will tell you what the framing should be, what the room will do to the work over ten years, and what it costs. Works bought from the house are framed and installed as part of the sale.
Write to Client Advisory WhatsApp the house