The Frame Blog

…to be held on Tuesday 25th September 2018  by Artcurial. This auction includes frames of various periods and nationalities, and is combined with a group of Old Master and 19th century paintings, drawings, and sculptures. Some examples are included here; for the e-catalogue see Maîtres anciens et du 19th siècle.

Lots 5 & 6: French frames, 17th & 18th century 

Lot 5: an 18th century Rococo oak frame ornamented with an ovolo chain on the back edge, with swept top edge; pierced rocaille corners and centres; floral rinceaux; acanthus leaf tips at the sight edge; shaped sight; 63 x 52 cm; losses to gilding; estimate €2,000 – 3,000

Lot 6: Louis XIII-Louis XIV-style acanthus-&-flower frame in oak;  32 x 23.5 cm; estimate €1,000 – 1,500

Lot 9: French frame, mid-17th century or later

Lot 9: Louis XIII-Louis XIV flower-corner frame in pinewood, with projecting corners with sunflowers, violets & daisies, with details recut in the gesso, all on a hazzled ground; plain shaped reposes; interrupted acanthus leaf sight edge on a textured ground; 25 x 24 cm; estimate €800 – 1,200

Lots 14 & 15: French frames, 18th century

Lot 14: Louis XVI oval oak frame, with beading; plain frieze; leaf-&-dart sight edge; 58 x 47 cm; estimate €800 – 1,200

Lot 15: Louis XVI oval oak frame, with beading; plain frieze; rais-de-coeur at the sight edge; old hanger; 26 x 22 cm; estimate €400 – 600

Lots 28 to 30: French frames, 17th century

Lot 28: Louis XIII giltwood frame ornamented with a garland of bunched bay leaves & berries, centred on roses, on the top edge, with acanthus leaf corners; spiral ribbon; acanthus leaf tip at the sight edge; 62 x 73 cm; estimate €1,500 – 2,000

Lot 29: Louis XIII-Louis XIV flower-corner frame, with fanned lambrequin corners, pierced foliate scrolling and narcissus-like flowers, applied on a cross-hatched ground, with centre reposes engraved with flowers & leaves; leaf tip sight edge on a hatched ground; 32 x 42 cm; estimate €1 – 1,500

Lot 30: Louis XII carved giltwood frame, with flowered back edge; cross-cut acanthus on the convex top edge; flowered sight edge; 13 x 23.5 cm; estimate €400 – 600

Lot 36: French frame, early-18th century

Lot 36: Régence frame in giltwood, with enriched ovolo back edge; corner cartouches with ovolo garlands, scrolling foliage, sunflowers and reversed flowers, with palm branches; centre cartouches with sunflowers and trailing buds; centred bound fasces; acanthus-&-bud sight edge; 65 x 55 cm; estimate €4,000 – 6,000. This frame has strange proportions: it gives the impression of having been cut down, or having had the width of the rail enlarged.

Lots 57 to 59: Italian & Middle European (?) frames, 18th & 19th century 

Lot 57: Italian Baroque-style bolection frame, parcel-gilt and ebonized; 97 x 73 cm; estimate €400 – 600

Lot 58: Italian Baroque-style bolection frame, parcel-gilt and repainted with an imaginative green, blue and ochre marbling; 66.5 x 46.5 cm; estimate €700 – 900

Lot 59: 19th century Middle European polished wood architrave frame with outset corners, ornamented with mediaevalizing strapwork, scrolled cartouches and cabochons, with pierced scrolling crest and apron; painted panels of birds, flowers and butterflies inset into the corners and centre panels; 35 x 28.5 cm; estimate €600 – 800

Lot 63: Spanish frame, 17th century

Lot 63: Spanish frame in pinewood, with wide frieze decorated with undulating acanthus leaves in the corners, and rose-centred acanthus leaves in the centres of three sides, with a pierced scrolling foliate crest ornament containing a sculptural shell on the fourth side; 70 x 45.5 cm.; estimate €4,000 – 6,000

Lots 74 to 76: Italian & Netherlandish frames, 17th century 

Lot 74: Italian Baroque reverse frame, with wide frieze and bird’s-beak top moulding; parcel-gilt and ebonized, with banded top/sight moulding in the Sienese style; corner arabesques; 62.5 x 46 cm; estimate €2,500 – 3,000

Lot 75: Netherlandish cabinetmaker’s polished oak frame, with stepped and canted profile; 30 x 26.5 cm; estimate €800 – 1,200

Lot 76: Netherlandish cabinetmaker’s cassetta, veneered in ebony and inlaid with bone stringing; 22.2 x 16.8 cm; estimate €500 – 700

Lot 84: Italian frame, 17th-18th century

Lot 84: Italian reverse cassetta, with shaped flowered contour at the back edge; imbricated leaf moulding; frieze with enriched flower patera guilloche; running bayleaf garland at sight edge; parcel-gilt and repainted matt green; old hanger; 69 x 53 cm.; estimate €3,000 – 4,000

Lots 89 & 90: Spanish & Italian frames, 17th & 18th century

Lot 89: Spanish Baroque reverse limewood frame, painted with a brown faux stone or figured wood finish; old hanger; 93 x 66.5 cm; estimate €1,000 – 1,500

Lot 90: Italian Baroque bolection frame; parcel gilt and painted, with engraved gilt corner panels with foliate decoration, and reposes painted with a brown faux stone and ebonized finish; 78 x 50 cm; estimate €1,200 – 1,800

Lot 107: Italian frame, 19th century

Lot 107: Italian Mannerist revival style tabernacle, ebonized wood and ebony veneer with brass and bronze elements; outset corners; open triangular pediment holding framed stone plaque supporting a semi-circular pediment, with a bronze appliqué of the Holy Spirit; appliquéd cherub’s head on the frieze; corner and centre decorative appliqués; modillions with bronze mounts; apron with framed stone plaque, bronze plaques and mounts; the friezes are missing some elements; 21 x 14.5 cm.; estimate €1,000 – 1,500

Lot 123: Netherlandish frame, 19th century

Lot 123: Netherlandish revival 17th century-style frame; stained and veneered (possibly with fruitwood), including ripple moulding at top edge; the frieze ornamented with scrolling foliate bone inlay and stringing, with centre plaques decorated with lovers at top & bottom, and erotes at the sides; 37.3 x 28 cm.; estimate €800 – 1,200

Lot 126: Italian frame, late 19th-early 20th century

Lot 126: Italian Renaissance revival style cassetta, in stained wood with finely-carved vertebrate and scrolling ornament, relieved against a textured gold ground, of the type produced by known framemakers in Florence & Siena, and commissioned by Joseph Duveen to frame Italian OMs; 17.5 x 13.2 cm.; losses to the decoration; estimate €600 – 800

Lot 144: Northern or Neapolitan frame, 17th century

Lot 144: Bolection ripple frame in stained and polished pinewood; with multiple bands of ripple mouldings and complex astragal mouldings; 53 x 43 cm.; estimate €2,000 – 3,000

Contact Matthieu Fournier: mfournier@artcurial.com