The Frame Blog

An auction of 200 lots of antique frames of various periods and nationalities, to be held by Artcurial on 4 February 2020: these are combined with Old Master and 19th century paintings, drawings, carved ivories and sculptures. Some examples are included here; for the e-catalogue see Old Master & XIXth century art. Also in February, the New York framemaker Eli Wilner is selling (through Guernsey’s Auctions) a collection of more than 400 frames made in his workshop.

Lot 4: a French provincial – possibly Provençale – Rococo frame; c.1720s?; symmetrical about the vertical axis; gilded limewood; convex top edge with deep cavetto; cabochon chain at the back edge, scrolling top edge giving the impression of stylized drapery, line of hazzling, asymmetrical acanthus corners holding a fluted chain on a wave-hatched ground, and pierced rocaille centres, centred acanthus leaf-&-shield on a hatched ground at the sight edge; sight 71 x 53cm.; estimate €1,500-1,800

Lot 10: a copy of Serge Roche, Cadres français et étrangers du XVe au XVIIIe siècle : Allemagne, Angleterre, Espagne, France, Italie, Pays-Bas, Paris, 1931; the complete album of 153 original plates of b-&-w photographs (two are facsimiles), presented in a beige portfolio; also one plate of ex-votos from the Bardini Collection; this copy from La Maison Paalman, framemakers, Brussels; estimate €1,000-1,500

Lot 13: French Louis XIV frame; gilded limewood; ogee profile with projecting corners & centres; Bérainesque foliate C-scroll strapwork ornament with lily buds on a cross-hatched ground, foliate corners & centres with diapered infill, the centre crest a scrolling foliate cartouche with a fanned lambrequin supported by roses-à-tiges on a ground diapered with fleurs-de-lys, sanded frieze, acanthus leaf-&-fleur-de-lys on a hatched ground at sight edge; 82 x 66 cm.; estimate €1,500-1,800

Lot 14: 18th century Spanish architrave giltwood frame; 59.5 x 52 cm.; estimate € 4- 600

Lot 18: unusual French Louis XIV silvered frame, with bolection profile; gilt-bronze appliqués in the corners & centres in the form of strapwork clasps flourished with leaves and centred with foliate cruciform motifs; 55 x 38 cm.; estimate €8 – 10,000

Lot 23: unusual 18th century French frame in faïence, from the faïencerie of Joseph Fauchier (1687-1751) in Marseille, established 1730; reverse profile decorated with graphic ‘hazzling’, foliate fans and flourishes on the frieze, and faux gems at the sight edge; polychrome glazing; 38.5 x 30.5 cm.; estimate €6 – 8,000

Lot 24: unusual 18th century French frame in faïence, described as perhaps from Bordeaux or Toulouse; ogee bolection profile decorated in blue with putti playing amid foliate scrolls and flowers on the lateral rails, vases of flowers and busts of philosophers on the horizontal rails, with urns of fruit and portrait busts in the corner cartouches; 30 x 37 cm.; estimate €4 – 6,000

Lot 28: classic 18th century French Louis XVI ‘baguette‘ moulding for drawings, pastels and prints; architrave; last third 18th century; beading, rais-de-coeur at sight edge; 55 x 77 cm.; estimate €1 – 1,500

Lot 52: 17th century Spanish reverse profile giltwood frame with acanthus top/ sight edge on a hatched ground; 49 x 45 cm.; estimate €1,500 – 2,000

Lot 53: unusual 17th century Netherlandish cabinetmaker’s frame, inlaid with a striking Greek fret composed of alternating plaques of palisander wood and tortoiseshell, defined with ivory stringing; set with antique (contemporary? original?) mirrored plate; antique hanger; 39 x 33.5 cm.; € 3 – 4,000

Lot 81: late 16th-17th century Spanish reverse profile frame, silvered with gilded panels at corners and centres; engraved with scrolls and foliage on the silvered panels, and with flowers on the gilded panels; 117 x 90.5 cm.; estimate €2,300 – 2,800

Lot 84: 17th century Spanish bolection frame with cascade of stepped ogee mouldings at top/ sight edge; antique hanger; repainted black; 73 x 57 cm.; estimate € 1,800 – 2,200

Lot 87: late 16th-17th century Spanish bolection frame, with shadow of original sgraffito decoration at corners and centres; antique hanger; 159 x 121 cm.; estimate € 2 – 2,500

Lot 88: 17th century Italian cassetta; remains of original black and parcel-gilt finish; antique hanger; 111 x 86 cm.; estimate € 8 – 1,200

Lot 89: 17th century Spanish entablature frame, giltwood, with textured shaped panels at corners and centres (sanded or perhaps with worked gesso); hanger; 56 x 73 cm.; estimate € 8 – 1,200

Lot 96: 17th century Italian (Roman) ‘Salvator Rosa’ giltwood frame, with egg-&-dart at back edge, enriched ribbon-&-stave; acanthus-&-shield at sight edge; 81.5 x 62 cm.; estimate € 2,300 – 2,800

Lot 99: 17th century Italian cassetta, black and parcel-gilt, enlivened with panels of mordant gilding and polychrome sprays of leaves and florets; antique hanger; 78 x 121 cm.; estimate € 2,500 – 3,500

Lot 101: late 16th Venetian tabernacle frame for a small domestic altarpiece; inlaid with panels of marble and other stone, with free-standing marble columns; decorated overall in lacca di Venezia with Islamic-derived ornament, the crest lost; 32.65 x 20.5 cm.; see Corneille de Lyon: French portraits, Venetian frames, Islamic ornament on The Frame Blog; estimate € 8 – 12,000

Lot 148: late 18th – early 19th century French turned frame with bolection profile in ebonized wood, set with antique mirrored magnifying glass plate; 17 cm. diam.; estimate € 1- 1,500

Lot 149: 18th century French turned frame with reverse profile in ebonized wood, set with antique dimpled and convex mirrored plate (‘miroir de sorcière‘), painted with flowered sprigs around a central painted roundel with a bird; 18 cm. diam.; estimate € 3 – 3,500

Lot 150: late 18th century French turned frame with reverse profile in pearwood, painted black, set with antique mirrored magnifying glass plate; 13.5 cm. diam.; estimate € 800 – 1,200

Lot 151: 18th century French turned frame with reverse profile in pearwood, set with antique dimpled and convex mirrored plate (‘miroir de sorcière‘); 20 cm. diam.; estimate € 1,200 – 1,500

Lot 163: a French Art Nouveau frame, turn of the 20th century, cherry wood, with slight undulating profile and shaped contour; carved with sprays of leaves in the top corners and reversed flowers with leaves in the bottom corners; left in the wood and polished; 79 x 102 cm.; label on the reverse of the Maison Dangleterre, Paris; estimate € 300 – 400

Lot 200: a fine late 16th-17th century Italian cassetta with reverse profile, parcel-gilt, with panels of scrolling foliate decoration in mordant gilding at corners and centres; 40.5 x 30.5 cm.; estimate € 4 – 6,000

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Sale of Eli Wilner’s frames at Guernsey’s Auctions, 19th February 2020

Lot 2: reproduction compo frame in the style of Stanford White, ogee bolection profile, with wheat ear or leaf sprig ornament, beading, bunched leaf above sight edge, gilded; 13 x 21 ins; estimate $12 – 14,000

Lot 17: reproduction frame based on an American model of c.1910, ogee bolection profile, foliate corners at the top/ sight edge, gilded in white gold; 19 ½ x 13 ½ ins; estimate $12 – 16,000

Lot 29: reproduction frame in the style of a late 17th-early 18th French Louis XIV model, ogee profile, scrolling foliate ornament with projecting fanned lambrequin corners, gilded; 12 x 10 ¾ ins; estimate $9 – 10,000

The centrepiece of the auction (lots 357-360) is a collection of four options on which to bid, the successful bidder securing a custom-made scale copy (in one of four approximate sizes) of the replica frame made for Emanuel Leutze, Washington crossing the Delaware, in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. The smallest option (lot 360) is 8 ¾ x 15 ^1/₅ ins (estimate $10 – 15,000); the largest (lot 359) up to 60 x 96 ins (estimate $450,00 – 650,000).

Lot 360: the smallest-scale copy of replica frame made for the Leutze painting, the latter based on photos taken in 1864 by Mathew Brady. Concave frame with bay leaf torus at top edge, stars in the hollow, shields at the corners, crossed cannon at the bottom centre, and a crest with a military trophy surmounted by the American eagle, and the banner, ‘First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen’.

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Note: the frame in the cover image is from the Artcurial auction, lot 100:

A late 16th century Italian Mannerist polished walnut tabernacle frame, architrave profile, with scrolling lateral brackets, a tied-scroll bifurcated pediment, and a fluted pendant apron; 38 x 28 cm.; estimate € 3 – 3,500