At The Gallery: Mountain Hawk Prints

Framing Mountain Hawk Curtis prints

Nothing is more successfully framed in dark quartersawn white oak frames — especially when used “close” (without a visible mat; see below) — than Curtis prints. Curtis himself favored this treatment, as the two original Curtis prints below, both in their original frames, demonstrate.

An original print of “Canyon de Chelly” in wide oak frame, courtesy of Mr Alan Burch.

An original volume print, believed to be framed by Curtis himself in a wide oak frame, courtesy of Lois Flury of Flury and Co.

How We Frame Mountain Hawk Prints

Our preferred method of framing Mountain Hawk Prints is in the period style shown above — not so much because it is period style but because it is so affective. Whereas original Curtis prints generally have a wide margin making this approach archivally problematic, these reproductions allow us to return to the original framing method.

Our Mountain Hawk prints are archivally framed. This is achieved by hinging each print to a 4-ply 100% cotton rag support with Japanese paper hinges and wheat paste, and using a hidden, or “gasket,” mat under the rabbet of the frame to separate the glass from the print. (The 7/8” wide mat, with the bevel reversed, is fully hidden by the 1” wide rabbet.) The frame is sealed with aluminum frame sealing tape to isolate the acids in the wood from the paper. Each print is framed with ultraviolet filtering glass.

With the approval of Paul Unks and Mountain Hawk Prints, we trim the paper in each case to make it fit within the outer dimensions of the mat, but always trim outside the plate mark leaving the text (title, plate number, edition information and Mountain Hawk identification), including print number/edition penciled by Paul. Prints are usually framed to reveal the edge of the image and a narrow portion of the margin (within the plate mark) containing the text. But often we opt to frame in period style — the style Curtis himself preferred, as in the examples shown above — covering the border and framing right up to the image. Again, even in these cases the text has not been trimmed off but only covered by the framing.

Critical to the success of framing close (whether revealing a narrow margin outside the image or framing all the way to the image) is the choice of frame that is in every way harmonious with the picture —

• in material (the humble yet dramatic, rustic feel of quartersawn oak is ideal);
• in color (our Medieval Oak stain matches the sepia ink of the prints);
• in proportion (profile widths are around 3”, providing a setting that’s strong but not overwhelming or pretentious);
• in form (the profile of each frame is chosen for the specific characteristics of the print it’s made for).

The effect is pleasingly unified, direct and straightforward, taking the viewer directly to the lost world of Curtis’s subjects.

Of course we are more than happy to frame your Mountain Hawk print to your own specifications, including matted. See for example the Curtis portrait, “Geronimo,” in a Four-Square Rounded Ends frame and the Chief Garfield portrait in a lap-joined flat and narrow mitered frame.

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