In the Frame

On one of our first visits to Le Mans in the early 1990s, I bought a decorated handkerchief as a souvenir. I think I had a vague intention of somehow displaying it in the future but, in the meantime, I would keep it safe in a bedroom drawer.
Thirty odd years later and I came across it again! By now it was somewhat grubby and very definitely creased, so if it was going to be displayed, a bit of care and attention was required. After a gentle hand wash, it was clean again and the colours hadn’t run. A couple of passes with the steam iron, and the creases had all but disappeared. Wrapped it round a tube to try and keep it crease free, and took it down to our favourite picture framers to see what could be done. We have used Youdells of Kendal ever since we moved here in 1991. We were looking at buying a picture to put on the lounge wall of our new house, but couldn’t decide between a couple of possibilities. Even though we had never dealt with this business before they let us take both pictures home so we could try them on the wall over the weekend. All we had to do was return the one we didn’t want and pay for the one we kept. We’d not encountered this level of trust/service/friendliness when we lived in Chester, so it was a real breath of fresh air. And, of course, Youdells have benefitted over the following 30 years as we have taken all our framing requests to them.
And, as with all the other “projects” we have given them, they made a superb job of mounting and framing this handkerchief. They try to ensure that anything they do can be “undone”, so the handkerchief is stretched and clipped to the mounting board, rather than being glued to it. All of which means that as well as looking good, it is still apparent that you are looking at a piece of material rather than a print on card or paper.
Only thing to do now is decide where it’s going to hang once the decorating is complete…