The proper hinge should always be on the back of the artwork. In photo 1 the hinges were put on the front of the work. As a result, linen tape was put on top as the T part of the hinge to secure the work. The more preferred method would have been two Japanese T-Hinges on the back of each piece. The same is with photo 2. Linen tape was on the back of the art work already so linen T- Hinges were used instead of Japanese hinging.

Dry mounting is used regularly in the framing industry and is very effective for standard posters and the like. However, this photo was dry mounted and by today’s standards should be replaced with archival photo corners. To do this, it will have to be removed by a conservator.

In this photo a second hazardous method was used by using two sided tape on the back of the front mat to secure it which resulted in the tape getting onto the photo. The white paper seen on the photo is from the tape will have to be properly removed by a conservator.

Here is an example of a mat done at the turn of the twentieth century which shows the damages of highly acidic mat board. The dark brown image with the 8 sides is the acid burn done from the front mat. The watercolor was glued onto the mat and will need a paper conservator to remove it.