_The Defect of Shrinking._--With proper tools the mitre joint is the easiest one to make, but it has one unavoidable defect, especially in wide frames. It is very difficult to get stock well seasoned and almost impossible to get it perfectly seasoned, so that wide frames, however well finished, must be expected to shrink a little after they are joined together. As most of this shrinking is across the width of the stock it is evident that it will tend to open the mitre joints on the inside of the corners. This is what happens almost invariably with joints made in this way from wide stock in picture framing. The same defect is also frequently observed in the interior finishing around windows and doors.
There are three other methods of joining the corners of picture frames--_viz._, the halved lap joint, the mortise and tenon joint, and the dowelled joint. A drawing is shown to illustrate these three kinds of corner joints, and it is hardly necessary to say that no one of them is open to the same objection that attaches to the mitre joint. All these joints require accurate cutting and rather more of it than the mitre joint requires, but they are more easily glued up. The halved lap joint is easily clamped up with a common hand screw, even when the frame is a very large one. But the other two require long clamps in order to pull the joints up well.
_Character of the Frame._--The kind of joint required depends upon the general character of the frame--whether it is to be heavy or light, wide or narrow, and whether made of picture frame moulding or of the plain framing stock with round or flat face; and the character of the frame is a matter of design, determined by the kind of picture, by its setting, and by other considerations discussed in Chapter III. How the plan for the construction of the frame for any given picture is influenced by such considerations may be seen in the example which follows:
MAKING A FRAME FOR A LARGE PHOTOGRAPHIC REPRODUCTION
This photograph is 60 inches long by 16 inches wide. It is a copy in brown tones of a classic painting by Otto Kneille--_The Education of Athenian Youth_, the original of which hangs in the Royal Gymnasium in Berlin. It represents a spacious hall or court showing three of the large marble columns and a massive seat in which an old man reclines while another old man is expounding some doctrine to him and to a group of younger men gathered around. In the centre of the scene a boy lies flat upon the pavement reading a manuscript. Near him several youths under the direction of a master, are contending in feats of strength. The composition is one that suggests weight and power. It may appropriately hang in the hall or in the library over a wide, low bookcase.