John Jones picture-perfect frames

The eponymous expert has mounted masterpieces from Bacon to Hockney

I am known among my friends for being a newspaper and magazine magpie. I just love to keep big, history-making news in printed form. My most recent find was a $10 copy of TheNew York Daily News in a Hell’s Kitchen flea market, with the splash “Nixon Resigns”. It was a perfect accompaniment to a 1960 copy of Life magazine that I had previously found in the street, which unveiled a new residential and office development in DC – called Watergate.

Image: John Jones Building images (May 2014) © Adrian Houston

For framing, I took the magazine and newspaper to framers John Jones (from £200), in north London’s Finsbury Park. The firm has mounted works for artists from Francis Bacon to David Hockney and everyone else in between – many a time a starving artist, before they made it big, has exchanged their pieces for framing. As a result, Jones himself now has a valuable art collection, and a new John Jones Arts Building, which opened last month and has much of this on display.

Jones is now in retirement and the framing business is run by his three children. His sons Kristian and Matt have an eye for the perfect frame, honed from working for their father since they finished school. Looking at my latest acquisition, Kristian examined records of previous photograph frames to see how best to unite Watergate and Nixon, at least in style, in separate frames. From thousands of mounts, surrounds and frames, he selected two frames and a cream mount.

Two weeks later I trot back up to Finsbury Park for collection (they will of course deliver larger artworks). Kristian has kept the newspaper complete and, thanks to his artistry, it appears to be floating in the frame, transforming my print media into chic historical gems.