Restore / hide??

[Paul N]

A good customer of mine showed me a painting at her house for an opinion.

This is an old (30+ years) quite expensive Japanese paining, oil on wood. One area, near the edge of the current frame is flaking off. I told the customer the best thing is to have it restored by a professional. Given the size (40 x 50) she is worried the cost would be prohibitive.

She asked whether I could re-frame it in a way to cover the flaking area (essentially, hide the flaky area with a new frame.).

I am considering a frame plus an antique looking wide fillet, both of which would extend and cover the affected area. Any other ideas on hiding this 1- 1.5 inches of the painting?

PS: A silk-wrapped duplex mat would really work well, but it would require glass which is a not applicable in this case.

[ 05-11-2006, 01:21 PM: Message edited by: Paul N ]

 

[JFeig]

Just to see the other side of the coin....

What is the value of this "quite expensive painting" after it is totally unviewable due to neglect?

 

[Paul N]

A few Yens I persume...

 

[Meghan MacMillan]

What about a rabbetless liner in place of your duplex mat? Frank's has 2 profiles.

 

[Paul N]

Thanks Meghan.

I just convinced the customer to send it (and a second painting too) to a restorer. Then I will frame it.

 

[Kit]

Good for you, Paul.

What if you had gotten it in your shop to re-frame and the MIDDLE of the thing started to flake away?

Kit

 

[Jim Miller]

Originally posted by Paul N:
...Given the size (40 x 50) she is worried the cost would be prohibitive.

You were right to persist, Paul. Too often I think, framers give up when customers say "it's too expensive", but what they really mean is "I don't understand the value of it".

It's the same thing that too often happens when an artist's customer says "Framing is so expensive, I'll just take it unframed".

 

[Paul N]

Actually, I took a restorer with me and went to see the customer yesterday.

After he and I explained how much value it will lose by not restoring it, what type of restoration is going to be done, etc, the customer saw the light!

We went from not wanting to restore one to restoring and framing 2 large paintings and some more down the road.