Daguerreotype Framing Recomendations Please

Could anyone here please recommend a professional framer who is highly experienced in the archival framing of Daguerreotypes?
MUST have prior experience in Daguerreotype framing.

I can't recommend a framer, but I could possibly lend something to a discussion. I'm in the preparatory workshop at the George Eastman House these days and we've currently got two beautiful dags on display; a whole-plate Southworth & Hawes and a portrait of Mssr. Daguerre himself, both framed by my supervisor.

is there anyone at George Eastman house who could recommend a framer?

Can't you pick something up at Ikea, Steve?

Steve, GEH has a big project going on archival framing of Dags. It seems that some of the older ones are going bad. and so they designed an air tight frame for preservation. The guy the builds a lot of them is Martin Scott. They are designed to hold an inert gas around the Dag.

PE

I'm looking to have exactly this sort of framing done in a sealed frame with inert gas. Would Martin Scott do this service for someone outside GEH?

I have no idea Steve. He was given the materials, precut, and the "blueprints". He is a volunteer worker there, and I see him regularly in the Cafe and in the workshop assembling frames. He has about 4 pieces, a frame, 2 glass pieces and a gasket with gas inlets and outlets. He places the parts out and assembles them, then the Dag goes in, and then the gas.

They have an R&D project to find out why some Dags are going bad, but it does require an inert gas to stop the deterioration, so Oxygen, Moisture or CO2 are involved somehow. It is certainly not a rapid process, but once it gets going, you see it.

PE

Photo Engineer said:

The guy the builds a lot of them is Martin Scott.

Click to expand...

Isn't it Ralph's design?

Yes, it is Ralph's design. Martin builds them from Ralph's specification.

There are several "builders" I think.

PE

Hey Stephen,

Here's the skinny.

GEH is doing a Dead Link Removed wherein the conservation department (Ralph Wiegandt specifically) has designed an uber-cool housing that can be filled with argon, as described above, specifically to house some 1,250 Southworth & Hawes daguerreotypes. There are many volunteers who are helping to assemble these.

There's no way you'll be able to get a hold of one of these; this is an in-house, grant-funded thing.

Now, let's clarify what you mean by "frame". To me, that means we already have a cased dag, and we're going to put this in a sink mat, build a mount perhaps, cover it with a window mat and put this whole shebang in a frame with glazing.

However, it sounds like maybe you have a raw plate?? In which case, you want to have it cased or housed in glass.

Let me know what exactly you have and we'll go from there. If it's the latter, a raw plate, I wouldn't call this a frame-job and the kind of person who would have experience in this would be a conservator more-so than a framer. However, there's absolutely no reason why YOU couldn't do this kind of thing yourself, given proper instructions & materials.

Yes, and I apologize to Ralph for using Martin's name instead of his for this project. I had a senior moment. Sorry Ralph. I missed seeing you in person on Tuesday with this apology on my tongue, but you had just left.

PE