The mysterious case of the woodworm that wasn't.

[prospero]

Had a nice lady in this afternoon. Had a framed oil in a bag. Very worried that the frame had got woodworm. I had a look and there were indeed lots of little holes on the back. But they didn't quite look like woodworm holes...... Too small. Then it dawned on me that it was a Frinton Gallery frame and they always wrap the corners with corrugated card and staple it to the back of the frame for transit. All the holes were near the corners. I told her this, but she wasn't entirely convinced. Then I pointed out that if you look carefully, the holes are actually in equally-spaced pairs. She began to come round to my way of thinking...... I then showed her a Frinton sample I had with the same phenomenon on the back. There was even a staple left in with a tuft of torn-off card stil attached. QED.
But even with all this stacked against her she came back with the final argument..... The stretcher bar had two holes in it. I told her that the canvas was probably supplied with plastic wedges which are usually left on the runner and stapled to the back of the canvas. There were no wedges in the canvas, but apparently she had yanked them out in her attempt to remove the canvas from the frame. And they were plastic. Even showed her one with the wedges still attached to clinch the point. I then finished up with the sixpenny lecture on woodworm habits and she went on her merry way.

Isn't it nice to give someone good news for a change? Even if it seemed as though they really didn't want to hear it.