Early 20th Century Carved American Taos Frame

American Frames

A couple of examples of American arts and crafts early 20th Century carved frames.

Carved Oak Frame

A nice example of a 19th Century carved oak Pre-Raphaelite type frame, with the gilding applied directly on the open wood grain. 

American Arts and Crafts Frame

An example of an American early 20th Century carved arts and crafts frame.

Canadian Arts and Crafts

A nice example of a carved arts and crafts frame from Canada. This frame was made in the early 20th Century, but the design and style is based on English 18th Century Louis XIV style frames. Such as the one below.

An American Cassetta Frame

 An early 20th Century American version of an Italian cassetta frame, probably made by Newcomb Macklin Co.

Pre-Raphaelite influenced frame

This beautiful little antique frame has some Pre-Raphaelite inspired incised patterns reminiscent of motifs used by Rossetti. It is a simple but really great looking frame.

American arts and crafts - Taos frame

The next of my favourites from my new stock is this early 20th Century American arts and crafts frame. I would call this a Taos frame, but perhaps an American based blog watcher will confirm this? I think the design of this frame is amazing, it has sadly been re-gilded, as have a large number of the antique frames amongst the recent stock. This treatment is quite common by art dealers and galleries, just to have a uniform look to there frames and paintings, and just to cover up any wear and tear. 

Carved arts and crafts

A carved corner frame

This early 20th Century carved corner frame was made by J.H. Miller and Co, Springfield, Massachusetts. I've said before how much I like this type of frame, and the many other styles of carved frames of the American Arts and Crafts, and Impressionist frame making movements. I wonder why these styles are not more popular (or at all) in the UK, they are virtually unseen. Maybe the American styles never really made the transfer over here, or maybe they did and didn't appeal to artists, galleries, and the public here. I'd like to make up some samples one day, my versions inspired by these types of frames....one day.

American frame

This is a lovely American frame made by Newcomb Macklin Co. It has distinct lemon coloured gilding, grey half rounded panels, with moulded corner ornaments, it was probably made around the mid 20th Century.
 
I really like all frames of this style. This was one of my stock frames, some regular clients bought it from me this week to frame a 1930's painting. I now have the unenjoyable task of cutting the frame down, it is currently 20" x 24" and I need to make it 18" x 24". This is not something I like doing, firstly because I don't like chopping up old frames, and secondly if something goes wrong I am snookered, as it's not like working with new frames made from scratch.

Arts and Crafts

I've always liked American 20th century Arts and Crafts frames. This one is a classic style, I love the simple carved corners, and the whole return to good, honest craftsmanship of this period of frame making really appeals to me.