How to wrap it up

Take it out of its frame, pack it flat, and it will arrive in the condition it left in. Half an hour, using nothing you cannot buy in a supermarket.

Why the frame comes off

A framed picture is often two or three times the weight of the painting alone, which makes the parcel dearer and harder to handle. And glass breaks — couriers will not compensate for it, and broken glass sliding about inside a parcel is what ruins paintings. It is almost never the breakage itself. It is the sliding.

You keep the frame. Old gilt and oak frames regularly fetch £30 to £150 on their own, which is frequently more than the postage we have just saved you.

Step by step

1. Posters and prints: use a tube

   If you are sending a poster or a print, please roll it in a tube. It is far cheaper for the buyer, it cannot be bent in transit, and it is what posters were designed for — most spent their first years in one.

   Tubes are a couple of pounds from your local post office or any stationery shop. Ask for a postal tube with end caps, a little longer than the short edge of the poster.

   Rolling it: lay it face up, put a sheet of plain paper over the front, and roll the two together loosely — image facing outward, never in on itself. A loose roll is kinder than a tight one. Slide it in without forcing it, cap both ends and tape them shut.
   Never roll an original. Old paper is brittle and gouache cracks along the curve. Original works go flat, always — the steps below are for those.

2. Check the cardboard first

   Reused cardboard is exactly what we want you to use, but look at it before you cut. It needs to be dry, clean, and still stiff.

   Do not use it if: it feels cool or limp, which means damp — damp cardboard goes soft in transit and stops protecting anything, and it can mark a canvas. If it smells of food, of anything greasy, or of cleaning products, because those transfer. If it is crushed, soft-edged or already been folded flat and reopened, because it has lost its rigidity. Or if it has been anywhere near a pet.
   Supermarket boxes that held fruit, fish or frozen goods are the usual offenders. Boxes from electricals, homeware or clothing shops are ideal — dry, clean, stiff, and they are throwing them away anyway.

3. Work flat, face down, on something soft

   Lay a towel or blanket on a table and put the picture face down on it. Never stand a painting on its corner while you work — that is where damage happens, not in the van.

4. Open the back

   Most frames are held by small metal pins, turn-clips or panel pins around the inside edge. Ease them up or turn them aside with the screwdriver, then lift the backing board out.

   If they will not move with gentle pressure, stop here and tell us. Forcing it is how paintings get torn.

5. Lift the painting out — and mind the glass

   Take the painting out and set it face up. If there is glass, lift it out separately and put it somewhere safe before you do anything else. It must not travel.

   Watercolours and works on paper: if the picture is hinged or stuck to a mount, leave it on the mount. The mount protects it and travels perfectly well.

6. Works on paper: mount it first

   If it is a watercolour, a drawing, a print on paper, or anything delicate, do this before you wrap. Lay the work on a piece of rigid cardboard larger than the artwork on every side. Cover the face with a sheet of plain white paper — glassine if you have it, ordinary printer paper if you have not — and tape that sheet to the board, never to the artwork. Then card on both faces, then bubble wrap as below.

   Glassine, not tracing paper. Most tracing paper is acidic and carries plasticisers from the way it is made — over time it yellows and transfers onto the work.
   
   You do not need to buy anything. Glassine matters for storing work over years, not for a parcel that is in a van for three days. Plain white printer paper is perfectly adequate and you almost certainly have some — modern copier paper is alkaline-made and near enough neutral. Acid-free tissue or glassine are better if they happen to be in the house.
   
   What to avoid regardless: newspaper and anything printed or coloured, because the ink and dye transfer; baking parchment, which is siliconised; and tracing paper.
   Pastel, chalk or charcoal: let nothing touch the surface. These sit loose on the paper and will smudge against even glassine, so skip the covering sheet entirely. Instead tape spacers of folded card around the edges of the backing board — a centimetre or so tall — and lay a piece of stiff cardboard on top of those, so it bridges the picture without ever resting on it. Rigid card is the right thing here: a paper sheet can bow inward under the tape and touch the surface, which is exactly what you are trying to prevent. If it already has a mount, leave it in the mount — that does the same job. If you are unsure, tell us before you post it rather than after.
   Send it flat. Never roll a work that has been stored flat — old paper is brittle and gouache or bodycolour cracks along the curve.

7. Wrap it twice, bubbles facing out

   Wrap the whole painting front and back, then again the other way so no edge is bare. Tape the wrap to itself — never to the painting.

   Why bubbles out: against a soft or textured surface the bubbles can press a pattern into the paint, especially in a warm van. Facing outward they cushion without touching.

8. Card on both faces

   Lay a sheet of stiff card over the front and another over the back, slightly larger than the painting, and tape them to each other around the edge so they sandwich it.

   Why: unframed work has no rigid support of its own. The card stops the parcel bending across the middle of the picture, which is the one thing that would ruin it.

9. Corners on, always

   Put a protector on each of the four corners before it goes anywhere. This is not optional. A dropped parcel almost always lands on a corner, and on a canvas or a panel that is where the whole force goes — a corner knock dents the stretcher, splits the board, or cracks the paint along the edge.

   Foam ones cost a few pounds, or you can fold your own from spare cardboard in a couple of minutes — the video above shows how.

10. Make it solid — a box is optional

    It does not have to go in a box. A painting sandwiched between two sheets of stiff cardboard and bound firmly with thick parcel tape travels perfectly well, and is often safer than a loose box because nothing can move inside it.

    If you are using a box, fill every gap with something soft and give it a gentle shake — if you can feel or hear anything shift, it needs more padding. Either way, tape every seam and every edge.

    Cardboard is usually free. Supermarkets, furniture shops and anywhere that sells electricals throw away enormous amounts of it and are generally glad to be asked. Worth a question at the till before you buy any.

11. Label it and send it

    Stick the printed label flat on the largest face, over no seams. If you are reusing a box, cover or cross out every old label and barcode. Then drop it at any parcel shop, or wait in for the collection if you booked one.

The things that actually go wrong

What happens next

Your label is emailed the moment it sells — print it, or show the QR code at the parcel shop. It usually reaches the buyer in two to three days. Your money is released to your bank fourteen days after it is delivered.

Every parcel is insured door to door and we are the ones who claim, not you. Provided you packed it the way this page describes, a breakage is our problem and our cost.

List the artwork