Suggestions on how to frame James Creighton piece from Leslies?
 

I have the 1865 issue featuring James Creighton and Henry Chadwick - I'd love to get it framed, but am not quite sure where to start!

It measures appx. 22" wide with a little more than 3/4" borders
and a little more than 15 3/4" top to bottom (i think a bit more than 1/2" borders top to bottom)

I also would like to get the whole thing framed in total, because it seems to brittle, I would be afraid of ripping something if I pulled out the 150+ year old page. Any help / suggestions / etc. greatly appreciated ... I want this to look as beautiful as possible on my wall, thanks!

Before you do anything I recommend you consult with a conservator. Likely he/she will advise treatment of some sort (e.g., deacidification) the purpose of which will be to preserve what you have. If there are tears or other condition issues, you will have the option to decide whether to treat as well.

After the item has been treated, the conservator can recommend ways to frame it. One popular option is to frame the page showing the baseball woodcuts (which the conservator can remove from the issue) and place the remainder of the issue in a conservation-appropriate (e.g., mylar) sleeve affixed to the back of the frame. When framing, you will not want the glass to be in contact with the woodcut. You can accomplish this by either encapsulating the woodcut in a mylar sleeve, or having a conservation-appropriate mount at the edges (which will be the contact point with the glass). I would recommend the latter as IMO it will present better. I would also recommend using a glass that absorbs UV radiation. Finally, for optimal presentation, you can use glare-resistant glass. Such glass is more expensive, but if it fits within your budget is worth considering.

BTW, congrats on owning such a piece! IMO it is the single most important 19th century baseball woodcut known, and tremendously undervalued.

What Corey said is spot on. A conservator will need to dehumidify your print (especially if it’s that brittle) in order to make it more pliable/flattened before it is framed. Surface cleaning along with acid free backing may also be necessary with tear repairs being optional. Depending on the condition, you can expect to pay a few hundred to several hundred dollars +. It’s the one thing you learn about 19th century prints. In some instances (or many in my case), you end up paying more for conservation than you do for the actual item. That said, it’s well worth it so you can enjoy it for years to come while limiting further damage.


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I agree with the above posts. Using spacers between the mat and glass is a must. Sometimes the thickness of the mat or mats is enough to separate the glass from your piece but you may decide not to use the traditional mat. There is a reflection control glass that greatly reduces uv rays.
I would check with a large, well known framer. They should be able to steer you towards a conservator.
Don't forget to post a pic once you get it framed.

Thank you everyone! I appreciate Net54 and its members so much for this sort of help.

Bought mine already framed, so not sure of the details, but it looks like this.

Nice! And colored!

Great! It looks like there are a few versions of the Leslie's woodcut that have been colored at a later point.

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/gp/186654475@N08/6mBW45" title="Woodcuts"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49425890112_2d21b2bb37_b.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="Woodcuts"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

That is a nice looking woodcut.

Tanner - I used a higher end art gallery to frame one time and they did a great job. Good luck with it....

Thanks for the suggestion Leon! The pic here is not mine ... mine is not colored, which i'm not sure to think of it as a good thing or bad thing but I'm not about to bust out the box of crayolas (just yet!) :)

I think the hand colored ones rock. Ones done in Crayola might not be as nice. :)

I picked up this one last night in Scott Gaynor's auction. I think the coloring adds richness to the woodcut.

Congrats Gary! It’s beautiful and very well executed for one of the most significant woodcuts out there. I’ve always wondered whether the artists were using colors that were accurate to the specific teams. I haven’t researched it enough but the 3 that are shown in this thread certainly differ in color scheme.


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I was thinking the same thing about the uniforms, George. I can only find a few of these teams referenced on the Threads of Our Game site.
1859 & 1859 Knickerbockers and Excelsiors- blue pants and white shirt
1855 Empire- drab pants and crimson trim on the shirt
1858 Eckfords- light shirt and dark pants
The Empire uniform on your woodcut looks amazingly accurate. The Excelsior looks right. The Knickerbockers and Eckfords not so much. I'll have wait until I have mine in hand to take a closer look, but there appear to be a few uniforms that are strikingly similar on our woodcuts. Maybe Glenn can provide a closer scan to better look at his copy.
This is not much to go on. The uniform styles could be from who knows exactly what year. They could be from the late 1850s up to 1865. Also, the woodcuts could have been colored in 1865 or in a much later year. It would be nice to identify a woodcut using the correct uniform colors. That would be a great help to Craig Brown in accurately picturing uniforms from this early period.

I believe Peverelly's book of American Pastimes lists for each baseball club it mentions the club's colors.

It would be nice to have that information, Corey. It would seem that a team's uniforms would reflect the team's colors. Combining that information with the colors and patterns on the uniforms in the woodcut might produce some common ground that would be more than a coincidence. For example, the Eagle uniform appears to be checked in all three colored woodcuts. That would most certainly be more than a coincidence.