The Frame Blog

This auction, to be held by Artcurial, comprises more than 200 lots of frames of various periods and nationalities, including several groups from personal collections. These are combined with Old Master and 19th century paintings, drawings, and sculptures. Some examples are included here; for the e-catalogue see Old Master & XIXth century art.

Lots 3 & 4: 17th century Italian & Spanish frames

Lot 3: a 17th century Italian reverse cassetta; parcel gilt and black with painted arabesques at corners & centres; sight 52.5 x 67.5 cm.; estimate €1,800-2,000

Lot 4: a 17th century Spanish Baroque frame with bolection profile; decorated with engraved foliate ornament; originally silvered; later painted inlay; sight 28 x 37 cm.; estimate €400-600

Lots 10 & 11: 17th century Spanish frames, with detail

Lot 10: 17th century Spanish cassetta; gilded limewood decorated in the estofado style, with corner and centre panels painted black with sgraffito motifs of reversed flowers and flower buds, with vertebrate honeysuckle panels painted on the reposes of the long sides, and suns in glory with foliate motifs on the short sides; with further enrichment painted on the ogee; sight 76 x 58.5 cm., estimate €8,000-12,000

Lot 11: 17th century Spanish cassetta; parcel gilt with ebonized frieze; sight 66 x 51 cm., estimate €4,000-6,000

Lots 25 & 26: 17th/18th century Spanish & 17th century Italian frame

Lot 25: 17th-18th century Spanish Baroque frame with bolection profile; decorated with shaped gilded corner panels engraved with foliate ornament on a hazzled ground; with the reposes decorated with faux marbling on a black ground; later painted inlay; antique hanger; sight 73 x 60 cm.; estimate €3,500-4,500

Lot 26: 17th century Italian Baroque leaf frame with cross-cut acanthus on the ogee; with spiral foliate ornament at the sight edge; parcel gilt and black finish; regilded; 22 x 29 cm.; estimate €1,000-1,500

Lot 28: 17th century Spanish reverse cassetta; ebonized, with gilded dripped pastiglia panels on the frieze, decorated with eight-pointed stars on a punched ground in the corners, and cruciform motifs on a punched ground in the centres, with small cruciform demi-centres; antique hanger; sight 36 x 30 cm.; estimate €3,000-4,000

Lots 34 & 35: 17th century Italian & French frames

Lot 34: 17th (?) century Italian Mannerist frame with reverse profile; ebonized & parcel-gilt, with flowered back edge; centred running leaf-bud moulding; frieze with engraved diapering and corner applied rosettes; beading; stopped channel fluting on a bird’s beak moulding at the sight edge; repainted & regilded; sight 48 x 65 cm.; estimate €600-800

Lot 35: French Louis XIII oak garland frame; with bunched bay leaf-&-berry torus at the top edge, centred on flowers, with acanthus leaves in the corners; flowered sight edge; original gilding; sight 30.5 x 37 cm.; estimate €500-700

Lot 37: a pair of 17th century frames, probably Spanish; reverse cassetta profile; giltwood, with overall punchwork covering the frieze; antique hangers; sight 71.5 x 61 cm.; estimate €8,000-12,000

Lot 38: 17th century Italian garland frame, in the style of Louis XIII; with spiral ribbon at the back edge; bunched bay leaf-&-berry and oak leaf torus at the top edge, centred on roses, with projecting shell and scrolling foliate corners; leaf tip sight edge; regilded; sight 114 x 124 cm.; probably cut down; estimate €3,000-4,000

Lots 44 & 45: 17th century Italian frames

Lot 44: 17th century Italian Baroque reverse profile frame (possibly Spanish?); parcel-gilt limewood picked out in black, with faux marbled frieze on a black ground; antique hanger; sight 44.5 x 38.5 cm.; estimate €6,000-8,000

Lot 45: 17th century Italian Baroque reverse profile walnut frame, stained and polished; antique hanger; sight 27 x 19.5 cm.; estimate €800-1,200

Lot 58: 19th Italian historicizing cassetta, probably carved in walnut wood, in the style of Piero Giusti of Siena; with acanthus leaf-&-dart at the back edge; astragal-&-double bead; frieze with corner cassettes with grotesque mascarons, with sirens and cartouches on the long sides and cartouches at the centres of the short sides, all on a ground of gilded punchwork; with centred gadrooning and leaf tip sight edge; sight 400.8 x 32 cm.; estimate €500-700

Lots 63-65: late 19th-early 20th century French and Continental frames, and details

Lot 63: turn of the 20th century plank frame with deep bevel to the sight edge; decorated in pokerwork with poppies on the right-hand rail, bats and the moon over the sea on the left, and coloured; maker’s mark bottom right; sight 58.5 x 71.5 cm.; estimate €1,000-1,500

Lot 64: early 20th century European Art Deco plate frame covered in hammered brass and zinc, with brass studs; sight 24 x 24 cm.; estimate €300-400

Lot 65: late 19th-early 20th century Symbolist plate frame; the short sides in stained and polished wood; the long sides covered with plaster or compo decorated with an undulating band of angelic figures, toned to match the polished wood; sight 52 x 40 cm.; estimate €250-350

Lots 73 & 80: Tramp Art frames

Lot 73: late 19th-early 20th century American (?) Tramp Art frame in the form of a double Oxford frame with paired rails crossing at the corners; stained and polished wood carved in zig-zag and dog’s tooth mouldings, with lozenges at the larger crossing; sight 20.5 x 26 cm.; estimate (with one other frame carved with pine cones) €350-450

Lot 80: late 19th-early 20th century American (?) Tramp Art plate frame; stained in two colours and polished; carved with zig-zag and dog’s tooth mouldings in a tiled effect along the rail, each tile decorated with crossed diagonals, with corner cassettes having diagonal mouldings; sight 44 x 64 cm.; estimate €300-400

Lots 85 & 86: late 19th-early 20th century Aesthetic & Arts & Crafts frames

Lot 85: late 19th-early 20th century fluted cabinetmaker’s frame by the Belgian architect Gustave Serrurier-Bovy (1858-1910); polished wood with cross-bound hammered brass corners; for biography of the maker see the catalogue entry; sight 60 x 70 cm.; estimate €3,000-4,000

Lot 86: late 19th-early 20th century Arts & Crafts frame in stained and polished wood; carved with continuous running vertebrate ornament of undulating naturalistic leaves and berries (olives? cherries?); label on the reverse of Davidson & Kay, Glasgow; sight 36 x 46 cm.; estimate €800-1,200

Lots 98 & 99: 17th & 18th century Netherlandish frames

Lot 98:  18th century Netherlandish scotia frame veneered in ebonized fruitwood (?), with a small gilded frieze at the sight edge decorated with carved foliate strapwork in the style of Marot on a hatched ground; regilded; sight 48 x 36 cm.; estimate €1,000-1,500

Lot 99: 17th century Netherlandish oak cabinetmaker’s frame veneered in ebony; sight 20 x 28 cm.; cut down; estimate €400-600

Lots 101 & 102: 17th century Italian frames

Lot 101: 17th century Italian Baroque frame with ogee bolection profile; parcel gilt and painted black; with astragal-&-triple bead at the back edge; double-ogee frieze decorated in mordant gilding at the corners and centres with sprigs of leaves in the form of C-scrolls, with cosse-de-pois ornament; astragal-&-triple bead at the sight edge; sight 61.5 x 49 cm.; estimate €2,000-3,000

Lot 102: 17th century Italian Baroque reverse frame in stained and polished wood; formerly gilded; sight 25 x 19.5 cm.; estimate €1,000-1,500

Lot 132: 18th century French NeoClassical Louis XVI gilded oakwood scotia frame; with beading; rais-de-coeur at the sight edge; stamp on the back of André Lambert; sight 27 x 21 cm.; estimate €700-900

Lots 133 & 134: 18th century French frames

Lot 133: French Régence gilded oak frame; with shallow ogee profile decorated in scrolling foliated strapwork; with plumes at the corners held in foliate and C-scrolls; with cartouches holding shells at the centres and flowered cartouches at the demi-centres; with diapered, cross-hatched, sanded and punched grounds and infills (some of the detail lost through regilding); strapwork and leaf-bud torus at the sight edge; sight 113 x 145.5 cm.; estimate €7,000-9,000

Lot 134: 18th century French Louis XV scotia frame with swept rails and shaped sight; with acanthus leaf tip & bud on a hatched ground at the back edge; foliate S-scrolling rails, with rocaille and cabochon corners, with a diapered ground; and pierced rocaille and strapwork centres; with flowered rinceaux in the hollow on a cross-hatched ground; small hatched frieze; with C-scroll-&-leaf bud strapwork at the sight edge; sight 51 x 42 cm.; estimate €2,000-3,000

Lots 182-184: three lots of couples of tiny 17th century French Louis XIII frames of various sizes

Lot 182: estimate €500-700

Lot 183: estimate €300-400

Lot 184: estimate €250-350

Contact Matthieu Fournier: mfournier@artcurial.com