We discovered this little gem behind an oval photo that our client brought into the store for reframing. She had no use for it and let us keep it. Even though it was broken I felt like we found a real treasure.
Not for its monetary value but for its intrinsic value.
This is what they call a Glass transfer painting- A number of them were made in the 18th & 19th centuries. Just because an image is such a picture, however, does not mean it has value. It all depends on the artist, age, subject, and condition. In this case it is cracked in half so it has no real value however, we still found it intriguing and wanted to display it in such a way a person could appreciate the detail of this little painting and the process used to do it. There were a number of different ways to accomplish this, but they all had the same basic process just used different methods and mediums, here is an explanation of one of the ways to create a glass transfer painting. They painted on glass, by the assistance of some glutinous body which would not dissolve in water; and then destroying the texture of the paper by water, so that it may be rubbed entirely off from the cement upon the glass; leaving, at the same time, the whole of the ink of the print upon the cement, and glass, in the same manner as if the original impression had been made there; by which method, a complete drawing of the picture designed is obtained on the glass; and then maybe colored by the use of oil, varnish, or water colors.
In this case the piece of glass used for this process is very thin and fragile, another piece of glass was painted to outline the image with highlights in order to add light behind the image making it appear brighter.
In our framing of this we wanted to display the process while viewing the top piece of glass from the front and the back sides. The use of mirrors allowed us to do this quite successfully.
As you can see in the photos. The mirrors where also used on the sides in both the inside frame and the outside frame.
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| This method of framing allows the viewer to see the detail this painter used, revealing his or her brush strokes from the back side of the glass. |
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| Only frames glass and mirrors. |
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| A infinity effect was created by the mirrors on the sides, when looking at this from an angel. |
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| You can see all three frames used at this angel, the large frame is used in the similar way one would use a piece of matting. Glass is placed on top of it and another piece inside the rabbit of frame for the level needed to display the front piece of glass. The use of the deeper frame with a cap frame on the outside was necessary for the depth needed to enable the viewer to see the glass with out difficulty . |
