Collectible Frames Have Decorative History | Antique Information & History Education

Until eventually just lately, museums and art galleries didn’t pay focus to the structure and heritage of the frames bordering their artwork or wall mirrors. Neither did art dealers or collectors. Now, museums are acknowledging the great importance of framing performs in models reflecting, or of, their intervals.

Frames are also remaining acknowledged as an vital artwork form. Their numerous layouts, styles and products are clues to their age and background. Nowadays, most museums look for to show art collections in frames true to the time period when the performs ended up at first developed. A single of the principal designs are baroque, discovered with carved shells and leaves and courting to the 17th century. Another frame design is rococo, with its swirling designs. There is also art nouveau, artwork deco and classic contemporary.

Historically, the use of framing as we know it did not commence until eventually about the 12th and 13th centuries. Even so the ancient Greeks and Egyptians utilised “framing borders” in paintings, and on partitions and pottery, to build sections of scenes.

Through the 14th and 15th centuries, most European frames were being commissioned by church buildings and were hefty altarpieces encouraged by spiritual architecture.

The very first carved wooden frames ended up designed for modest paintings in 12th and 13th century Europe. They have been produced from a one piece of wood. It was carved out, leaving a raised frame border like a tray. It was then gessoed and gilded.

For the duration of the Italian Renaissance in the 14th and 15th century, rich nobles commissioned artists, who made ornate frames to show their function.

Photograph frames took on great importance during the reign of Louis XIII in France. Baroque grew to become the type.

The earliest American frames are identified as American Empire model. They are very uncomplicated.

Beginning in the 1800s, picture frames as decor became a lot more simplified. The ordinary American could afford artwork and attractive hanging mirrors. Frames were mass-made with straight lines.

The Industrial Revolution affected the generation of the photo frame. Before 1860, frames have been usually imported from Europe. By the late 19th century, there have been frame outlets in business in Philadelphia, Boston and New York. The frames had been cheaply made with prefinished and pre-cut items. There were also tramp artwork frames created by touring artisans.

As the 20th century approached, artists commenced building frames that were being in the stylish motifs of the time, these kinds of as art nouveau, and arts and crafts. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the artwork deco model with coloured, mirrored frames had been in need.

CLUES: Unnecessary to say, expensive reproductions are currently being handed off. Preserve in thoughts that outdated wood has a musty odor. There ought to be some symptoms of warping.

Get the seller’s letter of authenticity before shelling out far too a lot.

Anne Gilbert is a non-public guide undertaking antiques appraisals for a charge. She can be achieved at 1811 Renaissance Commons Blvd., Device 2310, Boynton Seashore, FL 33426.