8 Sheet Poster

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TGFU

CGF II, Certified Grumble Framer Level 2
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I have a customer that brought in a "8 Sheet Poster", a Magic Show Poster of Carter The Great. It has 4 40x53 pieces. According to the customer, it is very old and high monetary value for collectors. He said that they are usually pieced together and linen backed. Does anyone have experience with mounting & framing these? Once pieced together and linen backed, it would be 80x106. Does acrylic even come that large? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Jim
 
Dear Jim,
I'm sorry, I can't help out on this one, except to say: Charge double and keep plenty of asprin on hand. All I could think of when I read your post was "Boy, am I glad it is not me! :D " (I really, really hate doing seriously oversized items.)

Good Luck
,
Leslie

P.S....and they will probably want you to deliver and hang it.....
 
Suggest he frame each separately and then hang them in a group on the wall.
 
Can you talk them into framing them seperately and hanging together as a ....if a 3-piece is a tryptich, what's a four part ....quatrich?

Edit: yeah, what Framah just said...beat me to the "send" button.
 
Just a word to the wise....

If you do end up getting them all together, (I would recommend contacting a conservitor to help with this by the way), You may want to assemble it on site. 80" at the narrowest will require a pretty big door to get it out of your shop, not to mention you will need to rent a U-haul to move it.

Whatever you decide, make sure you charge enough. It WILL be a pain in the a$$

Nice sale though! Good for you.
 
Last ones I did were four of them.

The Plex those days came out by special cargo from Chicago and was pre cut.

The linen was rewoven two strips side-by-side instead of sewen together because a seam would make a bulge. Lots of wheat paste, cokes, sweat band, and Sound stage #27. The frames I assembled there too. It was a 8 day party. Then the Teamsters picked them up and delivered them where the Set grips hung them.

They weighed about 180lbs each, and ran about $9,000 each in 1987 dollars.

If you are the least bit unsure about doing this work, you might consider refering them to Rob Markoff in San Diego [who grumbles] or Jerry Salomon in Los Angeles [who doesn't even know what a grumble is.]
 
Just a note - if these posters are of a "high monetary value" I wouldn't touch them at all until I called a conservator - even in the world of poster collecting the jury is still out on backing or not.

I think it is only recommended when paper is very fragile.

Hugh? Rebecca?
 
This is my own opinion, shared by most paper conservators, mainstream art curators etc., but not necessarily by dealers and collectors, is of the "less is more" school of thought.

According to that line of reasoning keeping something in as close to its original condition as possible is the first consideration. Especially if that original condition is rare. A sheet of stamps as opposed to individual stamps. Toy in unopened box vs opened and damaged. Unjoined poster parts vs joined and pasted to a single backing.

If the poster paper is in good condition and framing the parts separately makes any kind of visual sense, that is a good solution.

Second choice would be to join the pieces using pressure sensitive "tape" made from Lascaux HV360 and Japanese paper. Hinge with the Lascaux/Japanese paper or wheat starch/Japanese paper to rag/alphacellulose matboard faced rigid backboard (aluminum honeycomb panels joined to strainer would work - you could consult with SmallCorp re particulars of construction). And create a "window mat" from aluminum or sealed wood fillet lined with rag/alpha cellulose matboard using appropriate stable adhesive to cover edges of the poster and hold in place. UV filtering plexi, don't know how thick, maybe 1/4"?

This would alter the original only minimally, and be very reversible. Display lighting and control of that lighting should also be a major consideration as I'm sure many of the inks are colored with dyes that would fade quickly.

Sounds like a fun project, but would involve more than just framing - the environment it will go into should also be carefully considered. Having a paper conservator on board, even if only as an intital consultant, would help the owner plan for the long term care of the poster.

Best,

Rebecca
 
I would consider using these people to do your linen backing.

http://www.posterconservation.com/home.htm

Yes, the acrylic is available that large. 96 x 120. We would purchase it from Regal plastics. At that size, we would use 3/16" thickness at a minimum. Your frame would have to be able to support it and the platform holdiong the piece.

We would make a sub-platform, probably lined with coroplast or gator - contact cemented to make a torsion box. Yes, the poster would wripple if floated but we proably would not mount it (though we have also mounted large posters this size that were canvas backed.) It would need to have some form of hinge on the top edge, even with a spacer holding down the perimeter.

What you need to understand is that something this large is not just "oversized" and the labor factor and work space dedicated to working on this, plus the handling and transportaion are a factor of 5 or 6 times "usual" charges.

Our truck is not big enough to transport it and we would be renting a truck. Our shop has 18" ceilings and our doors are roll up truck doors, but what about where it is going? Have you done a site survey to see how it will get into the house/location?

Who is going to deliver/install. We would use 72" sections of Hangman track on the top and bottom. (Much easier to use than EZ Bar on a piece this long.)
 
The client should be advised that these posters
will keep their value if they are stored in the
dark. They can be framed, but as Mar warned, their
value must be considered and as Rebecca said, their colors may fade and UV filtration may not stop that. If the client understands all that,
frame them separately, since the combination would
be so hard to handle.


Hugh
 
Each of the 4 pieces have a white border around all 4 sides, so it would not very visually pleasing or make visual sense if framed separately. This should be interesting! Thanks for all the suggestions above. If the customer decides to proceed, I will probably have more questions.

Jim
 
If that's the case then how do you figure it will look any better all in one frame with double the amount of white running thru the middle vert and horiz?? My opinion is that will look amateurish.

The frames would give it a sense of legitimacy where putting all four in one frame will make it look like an attempt to piece them together. Originally, they were cut and pasted together to make one poster... unless you are thinking of cutting the white off??!! I hope you aren't thinking of that!!

The idea of 4 frames makes ALOT more visual sense and will be considerably more visually pleasing than trying to fit them in one frame not to mention ALOT less expensive to produce. Do you have any idea how much the cost of a piece of plexi THAT big will cost you??
Heed Rob's words well and consider the overall ramifications of trying to do this in one piece.... and he only had 18" ceilings in his place!!
 
No, I was not considering cutting off the white, but the customer sure is. He would have to do the cutting....not me. He is a collector and knows the ramifications. Apparently, he doesn't care about cutting this particular piece, as he wants it to be displayed. He told me that this is the way it is done (in the 8 sheet poster collectors world) when they want them mounted to linen for display.
 
Well, then... like they say in the design world:

If the guy wants a green suit, sell him a green suit!!

Good luck on this!!
 
Originally posted by framah:

Heed Rob's words well and consider the overall ramifications of trying to do this in one piece.... and he only had 18" ceilings in his place!!
Click to expand...
Uh Framah, how tall is Rob, anyway?? :eek:
 
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