Conservation mounts,  Acid Free Mounts, Standard Mounts

Conservation standards are ever changing, and there is no de-facto standard accepted throughout the worldwide framing industry, or even between the manufacturers and trade organisations of what is a "true" conservation board. It has become buried beneath marketing hype and agendas within some framing trade organisations who  are funded in part by advertising from the large board makers.

For clarification: We supply two main types of board.   Arquadia and Colourmount. Both are ACID FREE and both have a WHITE core

These are the same boards we use for high quality bespoke framing orders at our shop counter.

Boards ordered as Acid-Free/Conservation:  These boards are all conservation standard in the pale colours, and  at least Commended standard (based on Fine Art Trade Guild)  in the dark colours. The difference in their conservation qualities refers to the face papers only, the face papers do not come in contact with your artwork.

Standard (budget) boards will be Neutral pH  -  some sellers would pass this on to you as "acid free" - they have a slightly cream core. They are usually 1200 or 1250 microns thick.

We may supply other brands of board from time to time in standard stock colours to maintain availability.

So, in the real world,  We are satisfied after using both for more than a decade that both the Arquadia and Slater Harrison 300 range of white core boards are Acid Free as stated,  the boards with the paler face papers will almost always be a conservation standard, and in general use there will be no perceptible real world difference in the protection offered between the two if you are fitting your own pictures or photos into them and putting them into ready made frames, or into frames supplied by us.

Much of the damage done to art is from acid in board, and eliminating this by using acid free boards goes a long way to preserving your items.  UV light (daylight, bulbs or energy saving lights) can all damage your artwork and contribute to acidity in the frame due to chemical reactions within the paper.

If you require the highest level of protection,  eg. museum quality protection for your artwork, we can supply museum grade mounts over the shop counter. 

Please see our OWN framing standards.