Framing Albumens

We love our albumens and have taken special care in framing them. Since they are so old, it almost seems like we are their guardians and it is our duty to preserve them for the future.

Framing albumen photographs can be a little bit more challenging than framing regular black-and-white photographs, because they are very susceptible to light damage. We had them framed with special museum-quality glass and have taken care to hang them in locations that do not get direct light.  

The colour variation in the albumens also sometimes made it tricky to decide on the mats and frames. 

They range from brownish -

 

  to grayish-

and sometimes even yellowish, if they have had some sun damage.

These albumens (below) are side-by-side and you can see that the ones on the left are more gray in colour and the ones on the right are more yellowish-brown in colour.

This variation in colour led to some challenges in choosing matting and frame colours.  We also wanted to have some variety in the frames we chose - I mean if your are going to have lots of photos around the house, you don't want them all framed the same.

Here is a sampling of the mats and frames we put with the albumens.

We sometimes chose a neutral cream with a green undertone for the mat and put a platinum (between gold and silver in colour) frame with it.

We also framed some with cream mats and a wood frame.

 For others we chose a medium brown mat with a dark brown frame.

Others we chose a goldish colour mat with a gold twist frame.

Still others we just put in off-the-shelf frames, no mats, as we wanted them to be small in size since they were to go in the powder room.  We did have the glass replaced with museum-quality glass to preserve the albumens.

Which one is your favourite?