Old Frame Week at Frame Warehouse

Some of you know that we love old frames. Some of you know that we repair old frames. And some of you know that we can re-purpose your old frame.

Recently a customer found this spectacular example of a frame from the Victorian era. The beautiful oak leaf fillet work next to the photograph caught our attention as well as the overall size and the portrait. Turns out the photograph is an original tin type.

The antique oval mat had long since deteriorated but the frame itself was in good condition. With a new reverse beveled acid free mat and some cleaning and chip touch up this piece is ready for the next 150 years.

Several months ago a customer brought in several family antique oval frames for us to recut glass and prepare to put something new in. They didn’t know what they were going put in the frames but they wanted to be prepared.

The other day they came in with this beautiful hand cut silhouette of their family dog. We cut new oval mats and installed the portrait. Good as old!!!

Oak Park River Forest Art Show

Wednesday May 23rd was the Happiest Day of the Year! Why you ask? The Annual Oak Park River Forest High School Student Art Show debuted at Frame Warehouse. Each year Frame Warehouse donates the framing for the top 25 Student Artists. 

The show travels to the Cheney Mansion for the summer and moves to OPRF for the school year. At the end of the year the students get to take their framed art home!

Floral Still Life Transformation

This wonderful late 19th century floral still life on board came to us dirty, with paint scratches, paint chips and discolored varnish. You can see what appears to be the effects of either a coal heat or a smoking environment evident in the swaths of black across the painting.

However, our patient conservator cleaned the oil painting, touching up chips and scratches along the way, and revarnished the image. Now the purple flowers are vibrant in color, you can see details in the two bees, and the overall painting is now brighter.

At Frame Warehouse we can work with you to restore family heirlooms like this one painted on board or any canvas painting you might have.

P.S.: One customer brought in an an extremely dirty oil portrait on board of her Uncle that she had inherited.  After cleaning the signature of the artist appeared in the lower right hand corner: Leroy Neiman

4 for the Season

In December this year we are highlighting the work of four local artists at our Evanston store.

They have exhibited all over the North Shore and their work will be on display and for sale.
Please stop in to see the beautiful work of these great artists.

Sally Wille Watercolor 

Ilze Arajs Photography  

Kat Knuth Watercolor

Pat Rose Charcoal  

200 Year Old Print Restored

This antique print Pilgrimage to Canterbury was published in London in 1817.

​On the reverse side are the pencil marks of a rare print dealer who framed and sold it around 1900. Not knowing about the acids in wood the framer at that time put a couple of scraps of paper behind the print then backed it with thin sheets of pine wood. Highly acidic.

You can see from the first photo that the acid from the wood has leached through the back of the print and severely discolored large portions of the image. In this case the print was removed from the frame and de-acidfied. This process brought out more of the original color of the print.

In the photo above you can see the print after it has been de-acidfied and mounted to linen. We will return it to it’s original frame and use Museum Plexiglass and acid free backing to preserve it for it’s next 200 years.