Telegramme Prints and Custom Framing

One of the coolest things we’ve framed. Our customer just framed up these fantastic old hockey gloves for her husband. They had been used by her father in law. The framing was done in our shop by Alexandria, she did a beautiful job. The card reads as:

“Mark, I was just 15 when I got these hockey gloves for Christmas. I wore them as a midget player in Kimberely (BC Champions) and throughout my time at Notre Dame. It was my most memorable gift of my teenage years. And I just thought you might find a place for them. Love Dad, Dec 24, 2011”.

Our clients had a blast in California visiting vineyards. We framed up some of their favorite labels. Many mat openings with a nice barnboard moulding, and the result is fantastic.

This small painting makes a large statement with this very wide, very substantial solid wood white moulding.

Revolver image cut into hardcover book, shadowboxed.

This is a shadowbox of artwork created using honey.

From time to time, we put new art in old frames. A regular customer brought in a vintage frame recently, this compelling portrait was in it. He was not interested in the artwork, which turned out to be an offset litho that does not appear to have a significant value. A conversation with a client today prompted a google search, and this image has quite a story. The artist, Vladimir Tretchikoff, is Russian born and died in 2006. The original painting was done in 1950 in Capetown. For many years the model was thought to be a lady in a San Francisco, but was recently revealed to be a 17 year old Capetown girl named Monika Pon who worked in her uncle’s laundry. ‘He walked in, stared at me and said, “Hello, I’m Tretchikoff. I would like to paint you. Would you sit for me?”. Of the finished painting, she said “‘To be honest, I didn’t like that green face,’ she said. ‘I thought it made me look ill.’ She spent much of her life in poverty, working in a fish-and-chip shop and as a seamstress. Tretchikoff became a wealthy superstar, largely on the strength of this portrait. His prints and paintings were hugely popular in the postwar era, and by one account this print, The Chinese Girl, outsold prints of the Mona Lisa. The two were reunited in the 1990s, struck up a good friendship and photos show them laughing together. She says ‘I’m not boasting but it was my portrait that made Tretchikoff rich. The Chinese Girl was the best thing that ever happened to me in my not-so-nice life.’.  http://bit.ly/mbd8zU

This was a first for us: a custom frame lightbox treatment for a vintage 80s video game ‘Zwackery’. The light is turned on by a switch along the bottom edge of the frame, and is powered by a battery pack that holds 8 AA batteries, accessible by a door in the back.

We recently shadowboxed microphones for clients in the communications industry. Here’s one of them. Note the purple mat sidewalls. Another great job by our framers!

‘VARIOUS CONCERNS OF THE ARTIST’

Telegramme Prints and Custom Framing has acquired this showstopping print by one of Canada’s foremost Aboriginal artists, CARL BEAM (1943-2005).

His work, executed in diverse media such as drawing, watercolour, etching, non-silver photography, photo transfer, installation and ceramics, has been exhibited throughout North America as well as in Italy, Denmark, Germany and China. It is found in major Canadian and international collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y.

Details: VARIOUS CONCERNS OF THE ARTIST CARL BEAM (CANADIAN, 1943-2005) COLOUR ETCHING, NUMBERED 2/8; SIGNED LOWER RIGHT - UNFRAMED (Image, 45.5” X 29.8”) (Sheet, 47.5” X 31.8”)

Sold framed as shown, $1599.

This past fall, we acquired this SPECTACULAR tryptch at auction at Waddington’s in Toronto. We are selling this as a set as framed only, $2699.

Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997), American AS I OPENED FIRE (TRYPTCH), 1966 [CORLETT, APP 5] Three colour offset lithographs; stamped verso with copyright R. Lichtenstein 1964 c/o Beeldrecht, Amsterdam. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam publication. Sheet size of each 25.25” x 20.50”, 64.10 cm x 52.10 cm

The original tryptch is in the collection of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam