DRYMOUNTING
Dry mounting is a permanent mounting process
where the art is glued to a mounting board, using heat and pressure. The
mounting board is usually a foam core board, but other boards can be used
depending on the circumstances of how the art will be used.
A tissue type adhesive is placed between
the art and the mounting board. This combination is then inserted into
a vacuum press and heated up to activate the adhesive while the press
applies pressure.
This method does take out the creases,
wrinkles and even most of the original fold lines. In other words, it
makes it look good.
When you walk into a regular local frame
shop with a folded poster, this is the first thing they want to do because
it's the accepted way to handle 'regular' art prints.
Quite often when we've gotten quotes to
get a poster framed, the frame shop would automatically include dry mounting
in the quote without ever even mentioning it… and you say…..
'well, what's wrong with that?'
Let's look a little closer.
Let's say you have this great old classic
poster that you want to make a center piece in your home, so you have
it dry mounted and framed.
After several years, you look and see
that your poster has become valuable, so you decide to sell it through
one of the auction houses. The first thing the auction houses do is charge
you up to $400 to remove the dry mounting because it's considered 'DEFECTIVE'
and has to be fixed before it can be auctioned. And depending on what
type of glue the framer used will dictate how well the poster comes through
the removal. Then if there's any damage, it has to be repaired.
Even though it makes the poster look better,
it destroys a lot of the value of the piece, so we strongly recommend
AGAINST it. There are other ways to prepare your poster for framing if
you have a decent framer.
