Enfilade

Late-18th-century-style pier mirror; walnut, basswood, and parcel-gilt; created in 2024–25 by Eli Wilner & Company for Drayton Hall Preservation Trust, Drayton Hall Museum Collection. The mirror was unveiled at the 2025 Charleston Show (March 21–23).

◊    ◊    ◊    ◊    ◊

As noted at Art Daily:

With assistance from their partial funding program for museums, Eli Wilner & Company recently completed the creation of a late 18th-century style pier mirror for Drayton Hall Preservation Trust. March has been another successful month for Eli Wilner & Company’s frame funding initiative, with $125,000 in partial grants having been distributed to date. Nearly $50,000 in funding is still available. Exciting new projects are being submitted on a daily basis by museums across the country. Remaining funds will be committed to new projects by 30 April 2025 and can be used for frame restoration, historic frame replication, or mirror replication projects. Interested institutions can apply by emailing the details of their reframing or frame restoration needs to info@eliwilner.com. No project is too large.

Patricia Lowe Smith, Drayton Hall’s Director of Preservation, initially contacted Wilner in the spring of 2024 about the potential project after they had discovered telltale marks on the original moldings surrounding the drawing room windows, indicating a lost pier mirror. Since no other documentation was found to provide the specifications or origin of the object, Wilner presented Drayton’s team with period-appropriate replacement options based on historical photographs and hand-tracings of Drayton’s walls.

The selected digital mockup was then printed to scale for Wilner’s master carpenters to begin construction of the walnut substrate and basswood blocks for the multiple hand carved elements. To get a better understanding of the depth proportions and construction methods that were not apparent in two-dimensional photographic images, they visited nearby institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New-York Historical Society, and the Museum of the City of New York to examine similar objects.

After several months of woodworking and carving, the basswood portions of the frame were prepared with layers of finely sanded gesso and bole (a liquid clay) and watergilded. These delicate elements were then burnished and patinated to a period appropriate character. Meanwhile, the walnut substrate sections were stained. Finally in February 2025, following an in-person studio visit with members from Drayton Hall’s preservation team, all portions of the frame were fully secured into position, and the glass and hanging hardware was installed.

Eli Wilner & Company has completed over 15,000 framing projects for private collectors, museums, and institutions including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and The White House. Wilner was honored by the Historic Charleston Foundation with the Samuel Gaillard Stoney Conservation Craftsmanship Award, for their work in historic picture frame conservation. In 2024, Eli Wilner was presented with an Iris Award for Outstanding Dealer of the Year by the Bard Graduate Center in New York City.