20th Century Carved Frames

A couple of mid 20th century carved frames, one a classic Montparnasse frame with wash/decape finish, the other with crude/bold carving and heavily distressed gilded finish.

Carved Cassetta Frame

A lovely 19th Century revival carved copy of an Italian 16th? C cassetta frame.

Carved reproduction frame

This is a reproduction carved frame, lovely work, with a water gilded finish which is not overly bright and rubbed through to the bole and gesso in places. I am not entirely sure what style this frame fits into. I think it is best just described as Louis XV but perhaps it also has a Régence feel to it, which was the period immediately before Louis XV. But on the other hand... it has some more restrained elements like the straight gadrooned sides  which make me think of the end of the Louis XV period when the favoured frame designs in France went right back to much less flamboyant and more classic designs that became the mark of the Louis XVI period.
A lovely frame whatever it's called! answers or ideas on a postcard to the usual address...

Stiller Designs

Carved French frame by Jutta Stiller.
Stiller Designs

I have followed this woodcarving blog, by carver Jutta Stiller, for a year or so. There are some lovely examples of hand carved picture frames and details of the processes involved in making truly hand made picture frames:

Stiller Designs - Frames

Corner repair

Just needs some wax and polishing and this little repair will be finished.

Small repairs

This carved reproduction French Louis XIII flower corner frame has a few small areas of damage. The style of frame is also sometimes called a Louis XIV style as it continued to be used and developed throughout this period, in this context it is also described as a transitional style of frame - when corners really started projecting from the edges of the frame designs.

Carved Italian frame

Another frame seen in Italy, this one was surrounding a TV screen in a small natural history museum. It is very ornately carved as you can see, some of the carving is relevant to the town we stayed at, whilst other details seem purely decorative or are more classical for such leaf frames. The towns famous castle can be seen at the bottom, a cable car is bottom right, wine bottle and glass on the left, handbags on the right, and a lady's leg and high heel shoe top right. There are lots of other smaller carved motifs all around the frame background but my poor photo does not show them.

Little carved frame

A nice little carved and oil gilded frame, I have just made some repairs and fitted a matt water gilded slip. 

Taos frame

This is the carved early/mid 20th Century American frame, which I picked up recently at a nearby auction, in a lot of 3 frames. It's known as a Taos frame and was developed around the Taos artistic movement of the early 20th Century. It's not a style I am that familiar with, but I do like many of the Taos style carved frames that I have seen, and they are an interesting variation on the early 20th Century American carved frames.
This seems to be one of the more common designs, but it's not something we see in England that often, so I think it's a good addition to my little collection. 

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.

Carved frame cut down

This very nice carved frame was one I had in stock, the finish is silver gilding with a heavy colourwash. It was a few inches too big for the painting so I had to cut it down, this was done by breaking the frame apart at two corners, it was then cut to size and re-joined. There is always a problem when cutting down a carved frame - where the corners would have originally been beautifully shaped, after it is cut the irregular shapes of the frame can look awkward and unmatched at the corners. In this case the two corners matched up relatively well and did not stand out.

Carved English Swept Frame

This is a nicely made reproduction English style swept frame, it's one of my stock frames, and was probably made in the last 15 years. It's all carved with no moulded ornament and is finished in water gilded gold leaf. A customer has chosen it to frame a modern copy (from the Far East) of a painting by George Stubbs. I will need to use a narrow slip or liner to make the painting fit the frame.

Gilded frame with carved flutes

Antique Roman style frame

This classic 18/19th Century English Carlo Maratta frame has come in for some minor repairs. The name Carlo Maratta covers a number of styles, and to confuse things it is an English variant of the Italian Salvator Rosa frame patterns, which is a style of Roman gallery frame, named after the 17th Century painter Salvator Rosa. These frames became popular from the late 17th Century onwards, were introduced in England in the 18th Century, and are still used today as a traditional frame.

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.

Landscape and carved frame

This blustery landscape is by one of my favourite artists and customers, Peter Gibbons. I have framed it in a mid 20th century carved pine Carlo Maratta style frame with a limed slip. The frame is heavily distressed with a weather beaten look which I think works well with the painting. Peter paints dramatic and emotionally charged landscapes in oils on canvas.