Most fine art shippers, including ourselves, receive a variety of estimate requests each day from both “civilian” and “industry” clients or potential clients. Often these requests contain details as to artist, title, origin and destination, dates requested, medium, height, and length. Most often missing? The third dimension i.e. the depth. This is so common that we have considered producing T-shirts reading WHAT’S THE THIRD DIMENSION?! If you are interested in receiving one of these, as yet, non existent shirts, let us know. No extra charge for existential overtones.

Upon being asked some requesters seem surprised that the depth would matter. As if, having gone to the bother of telling us that the medium is fossilized possum teeth and pop rocks embedded in resin, how could the depth possibly be of interest? But typically in the end they indulge us and come up with something, oh all right, if you must know…. I have often wondered why this lapse is so frequent, as it seems so logical that artworks, being things, have three dimensions and take up three dimensions in what we like to call real life.

With paintings in particular however, this dimension seems to disappear from the interest radar. Perhaps it is because the depth, measurement back to front, can and does vary with the framing. But that is equally true of the length and height, to some extent. I think the answer more likely is that trained and museum personnel most often think in terms of image size rather than framed size. (Another question every fine art shipper needs to remember to ask!) Image size is their gold standard and depth is not considered. And this omission can and does persist when inventories are passed on for shipping quotes.

Also the depth is generally the smallest dimension of the three and so can seem insignificant. Emphasis on the “seem.” As shippers, we live and occasionally die by volume. Back in my rookie season I worked up a detailed estimate for a multi crate traveling exhibition of sixty or so artworks. Licking my pencil (metaphorically) and conquering my English major’s fear of spatial relations testing of any kind, I grouped the paintings by size, figured my crate dims and was good to go. Except, I failed to ask re image size versus framed size and, worse , I let the customer get away with giving me an “average depth” of 3 inches per artwork. Long story short, the artworks were framed in the most enormous heavy and ornate gilt frames I have ever seen. These babies each needed their own zip code. Every one was 6-8″ inches overall larger than I had estimated including back to front. The real killer, the budget buster, the oh-my-god-you-have-got-to -be-kidding-me element was the depth.

Things I took away from this experience:

• It helps to own the company, because you can’t be fired
• You can’t be fired, but you can be forced to ‘eat’ unusable crates. (No they never come in handy for something else. But we will get to that in another post)
• Average depth is defined as 5″ more than you could possibly imagine
• Customers are very nice except when ten crates turn into twenty
• Fear of spatial relations testing (which of these two hellish objects fits inside this other completely useless diagram) is a reliable predictor of intelligence
• Image size is for politicians, not art shippers
• All correspondence with estimate requesters should begin with “what is the third dimension” and end with “so help you god.”

Betsy Dorfman / Fine Art Shipping

Mostly in these pages we try to place the self back pats within paragraphs of otherwise actually useful information, but today we are taking a page from the Car Talk guys Department of “Shameless Commerce” and announcing the debut of our new state of the art climate controlled storage facility.

In the next several days we will have a full update on this facility on the STORAGE page of our website. As 50% of this space is already pre-booked we urge anyone needing climate storage to call us for a quote or schedule a visit, or both. At this early stage we are able to offer contiguous space to customers seeking a private or semi-private area or to forge a custom space with combined racking and open areas for storage of large crates and exhibitions. Have it your way and get in on the ground floor, literally!

The warehouse is adjacent to our full service home base offering packing, crating, pickups, deliveries, receiving, and shipping worldwide. For galleries and collectors accustomed to the self storage approach (aka “you schlep”) we offer a full service curated alternative to all the hassle and expense that entails. One phone call or email and we’ll receive, pack and put away, or access, ship, deliver and install — whatever you need, done with dispatch and done right. You won’t have to run over to “that other place” to meet a shipment coming in or find a piece for viewing.

Our RFID (radio frequency identification) asset tracking system, which incorporates our own proprietary software, will be the subject of a subsequent blog post shortly. RFID labeling allows for instant location of an object EVEN WITHIN A CRATE OR BOX , as well as on a shelf or in a truck. Multiple items in a crate or bin can be counted and identified without opening the package. Imagine. We have seen it in action, and are still shaking our heads. More to come on this !

Betsy Dorfman / Fine Art Shipping

We will be updating a couple of times a week as noteworthy projects, articles, or art-related info comes our way. For those unfamiliar with our company, Fine Art Shipping is a comprehensive provider of art handling and shipping services to the professional community and to the general public. This is our 26th year in business but our very first blog! We envision this as a place where “civilians” as well as art nerds can come to see what we are up to in the very custom, and sometimes wacky, and always busy, world of art shipping.

We will provide information on art handling techniques and materials as well as links to artists, galleries, museums, exhibitions, and art events that cross our radar. We welcome feedback, suggestions for topics, and related links, always!

The other pages on this blogsite will tell you about our famous Los Angeles to San Francisco shuttle (see SHUTTLE) and give a rundown of our key players (ABOUT US). All other requests for our services information, quote requests, or art shipping queries should be directed to us through our website which offers a choice of ways to contact us and obtain such information. That is basically the “business end” and this is the fun stuff.

At FINE ART SHIPPING we get calls and emails every day from customers who describe their painting or other framed artwork as already “softpacked” or “softwrapped.”

Generically this means, what? Well, most basically it signifies that something is not crated or slat crated or enclosed in a rigid container but is instead, softwrapped. Somehow. With something.

Over the years we have seen “softpacked” interpreted to mean:

• wrapped in a flannel shirt, with or without tape to secure (watch those buttons!)
• plastic bagged in flimsy bags sporting the dry cleaner’s name and address (my favorite)
• used, very used, occasionally chewed, plastic sheeting draped over the frame
• cardboard corners, but otherwise entirely naked
• loose in a box with an afterthought of bubble wrap settled primly over the top (schoolteacher)
• beachballed in bubble wrap, and taped tightly all around as if more couldn’t hurt, but it can (any package you have to cut to open is risky, especially when guessing at the outline of the object within)
• gift tissue paper re-used, glitter and all

Here’s an object wrapped in plastic with a foreign object taped to the outside, potentially damaging the piece – unless it’s part of the piece, on the exterior of the package, with tape all over it.

This one is wrapped in some random plastic material which is too thin to provide adequate protection.

A used box with misleading printing, taped shut after it began losing its rigidity – fine for moving some stuff across town, but not for shipping art or other valuables.

Here is a piece wrapped in thin plastic, sealed with clear tape yellowed with age (clear-on-clear is a headache for the unpacker), and way too much of it – requiring a lot of knife work to remove.

This piece is popping out of its plastic wrap, exposing it to damage and the elements.

The plastic draped over this piece is used, torn, dirty, unsealed, too thin, and has out-of-date labels.

The “diaper paper” shown here is more gentle on some objects than it may appear in the photo, but sitting uncushioned in a flimsy, open cardboard tray leaves the piece open to damage. And a delicate artwork can be hiding under those messy paper folds haphazardly taped.

Not that all “civilian” packing is inadequate: often it is quite good and serviceable for the intended mode of transport.

Our favorite example of ingenious civilian packing is the customer who tells the story of relocating a world class collection of wedgewood china back in the fifties from the rural south up to Los Angeles in her car, without breaking a single of many hundreds of items. The secret archival material? Sanitary napkins! And she invited us to imagine the look on the faces of the pharmacists as she and her grey haired husband looted the shelves of every box they could find…

This collection was many years later packed and crated by FINE ART SHIPPING and sent off to auction at Sotheby’s London. It contained items so rare that the only similar or matching ones are in possession of the royal family.

There is no one single industry standard for “softpacking”, although there are basic guidelines and understanding of what this means. The condition, medium, value and fragility of the item itself along with consideration of the intended mode of transport are key ingredients; there is no one solution for an entire class of artworks.

But by and large a “softpacked” painting to a professional means that the contents, if a flatwork, is wrapped with a moisture barrier, then packed into a custom cardboard box that is created from sheets of cardboard cut to size to surround the artwork on all sides and edges. This is then taped closed and labeled as to the “face” side and correct orientation. This is also referred to as a “slipcase”.

Slipcases may have other ingredients such as:

• foam lining along the bottom of the pack to protect a heavy frame from its own weight
• wrapping of the artwork itself in glassine or dartek archival materials
• double cardboard over the “face” of the package for added protection
• collar wrapping or “shadow” boxing to allow for air circulation and/or to keep packing material from touching the face of textured, damp or unstable artwork
• glasskin taping over real glass to avoid damage to the artwork if the glass breaks in transit (glasskin is essentially oversized masking tape with an easily removable adhesive)

The elegance of a basic cardboard slipcase…

When traveling in the custody of professional art handlers, even a large slipcase like this can be a safe and economical alternative to crating.

Softpacks can take many shapes, and manufactured, double-wall cartons are often the best option for the job.

…even when a little modification is required.

Large or grouped softpacks are often palletized for greater protection in transit.

The custom pallet is a stronger, leaner and more efficient alternative to standard shipping pallets.

As with crating, the most important part of a softpack is the part that isn’t seen until it arrives safely at the destination.

Cardboard isn’t the only material used for rigid softpacks. When an object has special needs but crating isn’t an option, there is still a variety of archival and alternative packing materials to choose from.

It is important to let your art handler know exactly how your artworks will be wrapped when received. “Softpacked” can mean anything, and often does. If your carrier assumes this means slipcased, and you are operating in flannel shirt mode, this can create risk for the object if the service picking up is not prepared to further wrap the artwork or to return it to a warehouse where this can be done.

There are some prefabricated boxes which can be suitable for packing artworks and some which are eminently NOT suitable: we will have fun with those in a future post. Happy packing!

Betsy Dorfman