Thursday, November 10, 2011

Victory Plate

While spending time in front of my computer a few months ago, I googled  my grandfather’s name. I was astonished to find that there was at auction, a ceramic plate, a "Victory Plate" with the date 1920, with granddad’s name on it and the name of the little town in Pennsylvania where he owned a mercantile store. The plate commemorated the end of the First World War. These sorts of plates were used as promotional items or premiums given to customers of the store. As I have only a few things left behind by him, I wanted to win the auction and I did. Being a picture framer for over 30 years, I have fabricated shadow box frames for family and museum collections many times but never anything for myself. The time had come.

The plate is adhered to a white cotton fabric which has been vacuum mounted to a heavy foam-core back board and has spacers covered with the same fabric to hold the Plexiglas away from the ceramic piece. Although I often fabricate acrylic box frames for 3 dimensional objects because of the clear sides of the box, the frame I chose for this piece is square and is made of a slightly distressed off-white wooden moulding that holds the piece securely and protects it well. Granddad would probably wonder why in the world I would frame such a thing! He would have no idea.

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