Frames in the National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery has some wonderful frames in their collection, here are just a few from a recent visit.

Gilding a Watts Frame

More Watts Examples

A couple of examples of antique Watts frames, seen on a recent visit to London. I took an order today for a couple more Watts style frames...

Future repair jobs

I am now winding down for the Christmas and New Year holidays, just a couple more jobs to finish off, and to be collected on Monday. When I get back to work in January I have about 4 weeks work already planned, with the restoration of the frames shown above being just a few examples.
The frame at the top has missing gesso/gilding so these areas will be filled and gilded to match. There are a couple of 19th Century watercolour frames which need repairs and re-gilding. Then there is a 19th C compo swept frame hanging from the wall brackets which has quite a few losses, the good 19th C swept leaning against the shelves has lots of losses and also needs a 1" gilded slip to make it fit an antique oil painting. The nice little Watts frame has various losses. The last frame is a lovely Louis XIII flower corner frame which has incised panels with floral designs. This incised gesso is lost in places so needs filling and then incising to match the surrounding designs.

Watts frames

Two of the better Watts frames found amongst the stock collected at the weekend, one in very good condition, the other not so good.
There are three other Watts frames which were made later, and are a little more mass produced looking, but still suitable for some period framing.

New old stock

I started collecting part of a large number of stock frames this weekend, here are some of  them before they have been put away in the storage racks. It is a real mixed lot with a few 18th Century, a number of 19th Century and lots of 20th C and repro frames of almost every imaginable style, condition, and quality.

Rush tidy up

Here is the Watts frame from a couple of posts ago... This job had a very urgent turn around, so it was really a case of do what can be done in the limited time. In an ideal world it should have had the over-painting stripped off and been re-gilded in oil and water gilding, but a quick fix and tidy up was required...
Once the surface was stabilised and missing ornament replaced, It was given a simple bronze powder and metal leaf finish, then antiqued, sealed with shellac, and waxed. 

Another Watts

Here is another Watts frame, probably from around the early 20th C. You can see straight away that it has been over-painted, which in time has turned a lovely brown colour. There are lots of losses to the compo on two sides which will be replaced. In places you can see the original gilding.

The Watts frame

I think this type of antique frame, simply known as a Watts frame after the Victorian artist G.F. Watts is one of the best designs to come from the 19th Century revival frames. It's balanced with just enough ornament and decoration which make it a suitable frame for portraits and many other subjects. Many of the 19th C revival frames were over ornamented and badly proportioned, and to be honest quite ugly compared to the earlier styles they were based on. The Watts frame is based on Italian cassetta frames, during the late 19th C it was a very popular style and continues to be so now. 

This frame of mine is missing some of the finer details of the classic Watts frame, such as a bead and reel pattern at the base of the outer ornament (nearest the flat), also the oak veneer flat is mitred at the corners whereas classic examples are butt joint, the main leaf pattern and outer pattern are slightly different, and finally the inner husk ornament simply runs all the way round, instead of radiating out from four centre points. None the less, it is a nice antique frame in excellent original condition.

G.F. Watts had a number of frame patterns on this basic cassetta profile, with various decoration on the flat panel.Watts Gallery has recently reopened after a full refurbishment, it is in Surrey and has an extensive website:
http://www.wattsgallery.org.uk/

You can never have too many frames!

We had a big delivery of stock frames arrive this week, a real mixed lot of antique, 20th Century, and reproduction frames. 

Victorian period framing

This Victorian oil on canvas has been framed in a classic period frame, it is known as a 'Watts frame', named after the artist George Frederic Watts (1817-1904), who was widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of the Victorian age. The actual origin of the frame design can be traced back to the Italian cassetta frames used extensively from the Renaissance onwards. This is one of my favourite styles of frame and its classic and well proportioned design makes it stand out from other frames of the Victorian age. The frame is water gilded.
http://www.wattsgallery.org.uk/