Specialty

Restoration of Antique Frames and Gold-Leaf Gilding in Paris

A painting restored inside a damaged frame is still a damaged work. The frame is no accessory: it was made for that picture, it gives it its scale and its light, and it often carries the same date.

Few workshops still hold to this specialty. It calls for two trades at once — the modeler's, to bring back the ornament that has gone, and the gilder's, so that new gold does not shout beside old.

What À L’Atelier takes on

Missing moldings and ornament

An impression is taken from a sound part of the frame, and the lost ornament is restored exactly and set back in place. Nothing is invented: what is remade exists elsewhere on the object, and that is where it is drawn from.

Gold-leaf gilding

The leaf is laid by hand, then patinated until it agrees with the original gold. An antique frame is not regilded entire as a matter of course: only what is missing is taken up, or the object loses its age.

Insect damage, splits and loosened joints

Wood-boring insects, damp, transit knocks: the structure is treated and consolidated before any decorative work. A frame that moves sets the painting it carries working again.

Patinas and matching

Blackened patinas, bronze paint laid over gold, and the clumsy repairs of earlier work are reconsidered, reduced or brought into accord, according to what the object allows.

Fitting an antique frame to a work

When a period frame is to receive a painting that is not its own, the adjustment is made without cutting into the old structure, and reversibly.

Work carried out

Real commissions, photographed as they came in and as they left.

Impressions of the moldings and restitution of missing ornaments — antique frame — Reworking the ornament by hand, at À L’Atelier — Taking impressions of the moldings and restoring the missing ornamentantique frameAcanthus leaves, shells, bead-and-reel, ovolos: taken by impression, then recreated.

Gold-leaf gilding of the twelve consecration crosses — church of Saint-Antoine-des-Quinze-Vingts, Paris 12th — before and after treatment — Gilding of the twelve consecration crosses with gold leafchurch of Saint-Antoine-des-Quinze-Vingts, Paris 12thThe twelve crosses of the dedication, taken one by one and gilded with gold leaf.

Gold-leaf gilding, laying and patination — carved wooden frame — Laying the gold leaf with the gilder’s tip, at À L’Atelier — Gilding with gold leaf, laying and patinationcarved wooden frameThe final patination is what makes a repair invisible.

Worth knowing

Should an antique frame be regilded throughout?

Almost never. Complete regilding erases the wear, the patinas and the repairs that make the object's age — and usually takes most of its value with them. What is missing is restored, and the rest is left to live.

My frame is gilded plaster, not wood. Is that inferior?

No, it is another technique. Carved wood, wood and composition, stucco, compo: each has its own fragilities and its own way of being reintegrated. À L’Atelier works all four.

Can the frame be restored at the same time as the painting?

Yes, and it is usually better so: the two come back together, in accord with one another. The estimate then sets the two out separately.

Talk to me about your work

The condition report and the estimate are free of charge at À L’Atelier, and commit you to nothing. Describe the work — artist, support, period, dimensions — and its condition, and we will arrange a time.

06 60 94 82 63 contact@a-latelier.fr

28 rue Traversière, 75012 Paris — Gare de Lyon métro
Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. — by appointment only
See every case study

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