A charter guest complains that a picture in her cabin is not quite straight and asks you to take it down and rehang it. You reach up and find it will not move. It is not stuck. It is security fixed to the bulkhead, deliberately, by a professional, so that it stays there in a beam sea. If you force it, you will damage the fixing, the frame and possibly the painting.
The Frame Is Part of the Work
A frame is often original, period, and separately valuable, and it is almost always more fragile than it looks. Water gilding is gesso and gold leaf a few microns thick and will lift under a fingertip or a cloth. Never grip a frame by its ornament, never clean gilding, never re-glue a chipped moulding, and if a fragment breaks off, keep it, bag it, label it and report it. Fragments can be reattached by a conservator. Lost fragments cannot.
Glazing
| Glazing | Notes for the interior |
|---|---|
| UV-filtering glass or acrylic | Standard for works on paper. Protects against fading |
| Acrylic (Perspex) glazing | Scratches easily; builds static that can lift pastel or charcoal |
| Antique glass | Fragile, often irreplaceable, and can be part of the original object |
Never spray anything at glazing. Never wipe glazing on a work on paper. Liquid wicks under the rebate and reaches the paper, and the paper is the artwork.
Hanging and Sea Fixings
Art on a yacht is not hung on a nail. It is engineered to stay put.
- Security fixings, French cleats, locking plates, magnetic and mechanical catches hold work to the bulkhead in motion.
- Rolling-sea hardware may include tethers, keyhole plates and bolted brackets, sometimes keyed or tooled.
- Sculpture and objects are often secured to plinths with museum wax, tethers, pins or bolts.
- Vitrines and cases may be locked and alarmed as part of the security system.
The interior does not remove, loosen, adjust or refit any of this. If a picture is crooked, loose, rattling or vibrating, that is a report, not a repair. If it is loose, it is a safety issue as well as a conservation one - tell the chief stew immediately, and keep guests away from it.
Before a Passage
Ahead of any passage, the interior supports a walk-round: check every fixing is engaged, every plinth tether is in place, every vitrine is locked, and nothing is resting free on a surface. Loose objects near art are as dangerous as loose art.
Onboard Notes
- Frames are fragile and valuable. Never clean gilding and never touch ornament.
- Keep and label any fragment that comes away. Never throw it out and never glue it back.
- Fixed art stays fixed. The interior never removes it - report crooked, loose or rattling.
- Nothing here authorises a repair. Frame, gilding and glazing work belongs to a conservator.