You've Been Framed

One of my most recent purchases, was this pile of pretty vintage calendars and advertising ephemera. Sadly, most of them have some water damage to their corners, but with some careful trimming, I hope to be able to slip each one inside a picture frame, when I can find suitable old ones of the right size.

I've already framed the lovely lady below, in an old metal frame.

The c1930's framed bluebell wood print was another recent find...

As you can probably see, the original mount had a large water mark along the bottom, and the oak frame was quite sad. I usually have a few picture frames in my workroom for such projects. Lucky for me, I had one which was just a bit smaller than this one, so I was able to re-frame the bluebells today.

The water mark was trimmed away and the picture now looks like this.

When I removed the print from its old frame, I discovered a few pages from an old newspaper tucked in behind as a packing material. The paper is dated 1933 and includes lots of adverts from the time. I loved this fashion page, showing ladies dressed in fur coats, collars and wraps - In my view, worthy of framing in its own right as a record of women's costume at this time.

(This isn't the first time that I have made a discovery behind the boards and glass of an old print or photograph. Back in 2006, when I first started Blogging, I wrote a short post about two royal photographs that I discovered.)

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By turning over the old watermarked cardboard mount, which turned out to be just the right size for the fashion page, the marks were less prominent. The few remaining discoloured areas will probably be disguised with some lengths of antique lace, before I place the whole lot under the glass. I wax-polished the wooden frame and it came up looking like new.

Finally, in yet another old frame, I made a collage to hang up in my shop. Every day I am asked by tourists to Shepton Mallet about the Turn Back Time TV series and of the shops involved. I have put together this collection of photographs that I took at the time, for anyone interested to have a look at. There's one or two images from each of the 6 eras and of most of the shopkeepers involved.

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And talking of Shepton, Belinda at No.21 has let the cat out of the bag on her A Town in Somerset Blog!...

The shop that I mentioned at the end of this post is soon to be open as Somerset Antiques and Interiors - Formerly from Wells, trading as the Wells Emporium. Great news for Shepton and the Market Place, which will hopefully increase its potential to attract more visitors to this end of town. Read Belinda's summary of this exciting news here.

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Enjoy the rest of your week,

Niki x