705. Choice of Mounts. In choosing mounts for prints there are various points to be considered.
In mounting silver prints with an aqueous paste, it is very important that the mounting board should be free from hyposulphite, 2 which is liable to spread into the print before the paste is dry, and to affect the image in time. In the same connection, the use of cards with bronzed (imitation gold) lettering should be avoided ; the print may be defaced by particles of metal adhering to the card.
Cards used in wet mounting should be capable of resisting the tendency to curl as the print dries, 3 unless prints are afterwards to be hot burnished.
When the prints are to be framed " solid " or " close-up " in wood frames (the mount not showing between the picture and the frame), the colour of the mount is of no consequence, but in all other cases the texture and the colour of the mount must be considered. From this point of view, very useful information may be gained from a careful study of engravings, charcoal drawings, red crayon drawings, and other works of art in monochrome in museums, exhibitions, and in the windows of picture-framers. In a matter where taste and personal preference play the chief parts, it is obviously impossible to lay down hard and fast rules, but a few hints may be given with advantage.
The mount should never be glossy or of bright colour. It must be remembered that a dark mount makes the lights of the picture look lighter, and, inversely, that a very light-coloured mount will increase the apparent depth of the blacks.' The tones of the picture in relation to the mount may be made effective either by harmony or contrast, but colour contrasts are to be avoided if the picture is not in itself of con siderable vigour. Blue tones (and blue-blacks), as well as browns, lend themselves generally best to an harmonious combination with the mount ; red and reddish tones will stand either harmony or contrast (for example, yellowish, greenish, or grey-blue mounts) ; pure black tones suit mounts of almost all shades. When there is any doubt, a neutral grey should be chosen ; this tone suits any colour of the picture. It is often sufficient to have a narrow border, separating the picture from the mount, in order to modify their mutual effect.
Fortunately, the use of variegated and orna mental mounts, always in bad taste, has been abandoned. Dry-mounting methods, allowing the use of thin mounts, have provided photo graphers with matt or rough papers of the many shades used for magazine covers and in modern high-class printing, 2 in addition to drawing papers. When not used alone, such papers may be pasted to the cardboard (e.g. with starch paste) under suitable pressure. It is also possible to use fabrics pasted on card or, in the same conditions, leaves of wood veneers : rose wood, olive, walnut, etc.
Thin papers, especially in dry mounting, may be used with very pleasing results in multiple mounting. By backing the print with a series of progressively larger mounting papers of varying size and tone a series of borders is produced. The result is similar in effect to that obtained with wash and line 1 on the cut-out mount used for framing engravings and water colour drawings. A warning may be given against allowing the different borders to follow each other in order of depth of tone.
Before deciding on a mount, the print should be placed in conjunction with papers of different tints, more or less deep, so as to find the one that shows the picture to the best advantage. In choosing colours, beware of those which show differently in more or less yellow artificial light.
Mention may be made of the passe-partouts of fixed size, which consequently rarely suit the subject to be framed, except in the case of the professional portrait. 2 Finally may be men tioned the use, as mounts, of panels of veneer wood (for pictures of very large size), or of stout canvas (photographs used by commercial travellers). 3 706. Placing the Picture on the Mount. A picture placed precisely in the centre of a mount will always appear to be too low. It is a tradition almost universally accepted that if the greater dimension of the mount is the vertical one, the upper and the side margins should be the same width, and distinctly narrower than the depth of mount below the print. 1 If, on the contrary, the larger dimension of the mount is horizontal, the lower margin and the side margins should be equal to each other, and the space above the print of distinctly less depth.