The Company is renowned for its attention to detail and authentic methods of building.
These cabinet-making skills are labour intensive. Even the 21st Century craftsmen cannot build frames any faster by hand than their predecessors were able to do more than three hundred years ago.

Gilding follows a 3000 year old tradition of laying virtually pure gold one micron thick onto a specially prepared surface.
Although the manufacture of gold leaf has been revolutionised, mechanisation is incapable of replacing the craft of water gilding. The gold leaf is adhered by water to a smooth coloured surface made of "burnishing clay" called "baulus" or "bole".
The gold is then burnished with an agate stone and it is the baulus that gives the gold its particular lustre.

There is no substitute to the authentic method of French polishing.
The process is a tedious one of filling the wood grain with polish, to bring out its natural beauty.
It involves "putting on" and "taking off" until one achieves a high "coach gloss" finish.

This in turn requires ageing/distressing to give the surface an antique appearance. Removing surplus wood (below left) is the most tedious part of traditional carving. The skill of the carver is shown in the accuracy and quality of the final carving. The Company's policy is neither to invent or embellish, but to accurately reproduce original designs.

The illustration below shows a craftsman restoring a carved Louis XIV frame. Both the carving and the gesso (the layer of gilder's plaster laid over the carving) had been badly damaged. The craftsman is replacing the gesso prior to the damaged areas being gilded. Restoration of antique frames has always been an important service offered by John Davies Framing Ltd.