The Frame Blog

An auction by EVE of nearly 500 lots of frames will take place over two days at Drouot-Richelieu, Paris, on 15^th September 2020. It includes a variety of designs of different periods and nationalities at a range of estimates, starting at €30 but, in general, sitting on the upper tiers of pretty high. There are a few examples below, with links to the relevant pages; the catalogue appears in book form here, and as a list here. The Coutau-Bégarie sale takes place on 18^th September, also at Drouot-Richelieu, with 117 lots of perhaps slightly less starry frames, but at more reasonable prices; and the Artcurial sale on 29^th September Champs-Elysées, Paris, with 132 lots including some very ornamental frames (again, with quite high estimates). Please scroll down for examples of both latter sales.

EVE: Cadres anciens et modernes, 15 September at 14.00 local time

Lot 64: a small 19th century rosewood frame with boxwood stringing; 10.5 x 8.5 cm.; estimate: €30-50

Lot 65: a 17^th century Italian Baroque bolection frame in walnut, with cavetto and torus at the sight edge; old hanger; 19.5 x 16.5 cm.; estimate: € 700-900

Lot 75: a French Empire frame, end of the 18^th-early 19^th century; scotia with alternating palmettes and lotus flowers; leaf tip sight edge; 23.5 x 20 cm.; cut down at corners; estimate: €150-200

Lot 93: a 17^th century French Louis XIII garland frame; bay leaf-&-flower rose-centred convex top edge; stylized acanthus leaf tip on a hazzled ground at sight edge; cut down; 39 x 31 cm.; estimate: €800-1,200Lot 115: a pair of 18^th century Italian carved and gilded limewood frames; centred running husks at back edge; cable moulding at sight edge on a hazzled ground; 39 x 31.5 cm.; estimate: €2,200-3,000

Lot 125: an 18^th century Louis XVI scotia frame; astragal-&-double bead; rais-de-coeur at sight edge; with C. Pepin estampille on reverse; 40 x 31.5 cm.; estimate: €900-1,200 [for Pepin, maître 1775, see Neil Jeffares,  ‘Framing the Louvre’s pastels’)

Lot 129: a 17^th century Italian Baroque bolection frame; parcel-gilt with painted polished scotia; old hanger; 45 x 35 cm.; estimate: €1,200-2,200

Lot 131: a 17^th century French Louis XIII charmingly wonky oval garland frame; flowered back edge; rose, rosebud and rose-leaf garland at top edge; acanthus leaf tip sight edge on a hazzled ground; restorations; 48.5 x 39.5 cm.; estimate: €450-750

Lot 172: a 17^th or 18^th century Italian reverse cassetta; astragal-&-triple bead on back edge; frieze with punchwork interlocking strapwork fret with foliated shoots and rosettes on a punched ground, with corner and centre applied carved rosettes; centred bay leaf moulding at sight edge;  48 x 40 cm.; estimate: €1,200-1,800

Lot 174: a 17^th century Netherlandish walnut veneer bolection frame; canted back edge; cushion frieze; ogee at sight edge; old hanger; 33 x 28 cm.; €1,500-2,000

Lot 183: a 17^th century Netherlandish ebony frame with four runs of wave mouldings; gilded sight edge; 30 x 24 cm.; estimate: €1,500-2,000

Lot 199: a 16^th-17^th century Italian cassetta; with beaded astragals bordering the frieze; ebonized and parcel-gilt; 103.5 x 81.5 cm.; estimate: €1,800-2,200

Lot 203: a late 17^th or 18^th century Italian Baroque reverse frame; with gadrooned sight edge; ebonized and parcel-gilt; old hanger; 71 x 58.5 cm.; estimate: €950-1,200

Lot 206: an 18^th century Italian Baroque leaf frame;  with interlocking scrolling sprays of acanthus with florets, sculpted in deep relief and recut with hatched veining; with pierced lower corners and asymmetric centre; asymmetric pierced sunburst of leaves and florets at the crest; shaped scrolled sight edge; 45 x 37.5 cm.; estimate: €1,000-1,200

Lot 222: an 18^th century Italian hollow frame with ogee mouldings; silvered finish; old hanger; 102.5 x 76 cm.; estimate: €700-900

Lot 225: a 17^th century Spanish Baroque  leaf frame; with pierced scrolling acanthus leaves, centered at the base with a sunflower in a circle of fruit and leaves; with a pierced scrolling cartouche at the crest holding a jewelled crown from which spring palm leaves (broken; the crest apparently also missing a floral motif); floral chain at sight edge; old hanger;  79 x 63 cm.; estimate: €3,500-4,500

Lot 233: a French Baroque Louis XIV oak frame, second half 17^th century; foliate strapwork and floral sprigs on the ogee on a cross-hatched ground, with fanned lambrequin corners and centres with a punched ground; sanded frieze; acanthus leaf tip sight edge; slightly clogged with over-gilding; 64 x 44 cm.; estimate: €1,500-1,800

Lot 269: a French Louis XVI NeoClassical frame; apparently with a ‘label/ etiquette’ (estampille?) of ‘Infroid’ [sic] (Infroit?); 84 x 60 cm.; estimate: €1,100-1,400

Lot 276: a 19^th century French Restauration Greek corner frame; with plaster anthemia in the corners trailing scrolling flowered rinceaux and tiny cornucopiae of flowers and fruit; rais-de-coeur at the sight edge; 66.5  x44 cm.; estimate: €120-150

Lot 294: a 20^th century folk art (art populaire) frame of stained, polychrome and roughly-carved pinewood, with serrated contours, diagonally-patterned frieze with rosette corners, floral rinceaux on the bottom rail, and a miniature Eiffel Tower between two stars on the top rail; 32.2 x 42.5 cm.; estimate: €100-120

Lot 306: a 20^th century artist’s style ivory and parcel-gilt cushion frame; 108.5 x 78.5 cm.; estimate:  €80-120

Lot 311: an 18^th century French Louis XV/Rococo frame; with S-scrolled vine-spiralled swept top edge; pierced foliate and rocaille corners, centres and demi-centres, trailing curlicues and rinceaux in the hollow; sanded frieze; flowered chain at sight edge; small losses; 96 x 144 cm.; estimate: €10,000-15,000

Lot 319: a 17^th century Italian Baroque reverse frame; with centred garland of animated bay leaves at the sight edge; ebonized and parcel-gilt; 92 x 72.5 cm.; estimate: €1,400-1,800

Lot 320: an 18^th century Spanish panel bolection frame; ebonized, with canted frieze centred with shaped faux marbre raised panels; 69.5 x 46.5 cm.; estimate: €1,200-1,600

Lot 404: an 18^th century German, Northern or mid-European Rococo oak frame; with asymmetric rocaille, shell and foliate corners and top and bottom centres; the sides with foliate rocaille clasps; goffered rocaille sight edge; 73 x 59 cm.; estimate: €800-1,200

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Coutau-Bégarie: Cadres anciens, 18 September at 13.30 local time

Lot 4: a 19^th century French fluted frame with moulded plaster ornament; with imbricated bay leaf torus at top edge; fluted scotia with acanthus corners; beading; 131 x 98 cm.; estimate: €400-600

Lot 6: a large late 18^th century French oak baguette; carved with a foliate-enriched egg-&-dart and beads; 169 x 155 cm.; estimate: €800-1,000

Lot 34: a late 17^th-early 18^th century French Baroque Louis XIV frame; convex rail with Berainesque linked opposed C-scrolls holding leaf buds on a cross-hatched ground; dentil sight edge; cut down with loss of corner junctions; 44 x 31cm.; estimate: €200-25

Lot 39: a 19^th century mid-European carved giltwood flower frame in vaguely Lutma revival style; a wide hollow carcass decorated flamboyantly with vast sunflower corners trailing scrolling leaves, and paeony centres held in festoons of fruit and florets; 39 x 32 cm.; estimate: €250-350

Lot 50: an 18^th century Baroque Italian ‘Salvator Rosa’ or Roman frame; with acanthus-&-shield at back edge; enriched ribbon moulding; acanthus-&-shield at sight edge; 45 x 37 cm.; cut down at some point; estimate: €300-350

Lot 67: an 18^th century French Louis XVI scotia frame with frieze carved in oak; with pearls; rais-de-coeur at sight edge; Infroit estampille; 15 x 11.5 cm.; estimate: €500-600 [for Infroit, maître 1759, see Bruno Pons, ‘18^th century French frames and their ornamentation’, Neil Jeffares,  ‘Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun: Part II: her pastel frames, 1772-1789’, and Edgar Harden, ‘Identifying the framemakers of 18^th century Paris’]

Lot 81: a late 19^th-early 20^th century reeded architrave frame in the style of Degas; finished in cream lacquer/polished gesso?; 51 x 38.5 cm.; estimate: €180-200

Lot 114: an 18^th century French Rococo oak frame with oval sight; with dentil back edge; S-scrolled top edge with shell, rocaille and foliate corners, trailing floral rinceaux and tiny shell centres; acanthus leaf sight edge; 79 x 63 cm.; estimate: €600-800

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Artcurial: Cadres anciens & de collections, 29^th September at 14.00 local time

Lot 2: a 17^th century French Louis XIII oak frame; with flowered back edge; torus at top edge with bunched bay leaves and berries centred with roses, with acanthus leaf corners; with acanthus leaf tip sight edge; partly regilded; 59 x 49.5 cm.; estimate: €1,500-2,000

Lot 3: a 17^th century Baroque French Louis XIV flower corner frame in limewood; fleur-de-lys, foliage and flowers on a cross-hatched ground at corners, with engraved reposes at centres; acanthus leaf tip at sight edge; 22.50 x 17 cm.; estimate: €300-400

Lot 11: a 19^th century Netherlandish Salon frame, ornamented in plaster; with ovolo chain on top edge; scrolled cartouches at corners and centres, trailing floral rinceaux along the hollow; acanthus-&-shield at sight edge; 158 x 200 cm.; estimate: €1,500-2,000

Lot 31: a late 18^th-early 19^th century middle European Rococo frame; leaf tip back edge; ribbon-bound reeded top edge; animated pierced foliate and rocaille asymmetric corners and centres, trailing floral rinceaux in the hollow, with hatched panels in the reposes; with acanthus and bay leaf tips at the sight edge; cut in the past and regilded; 96.5 x 117 cm.; €1,500-2,500

Lot 39: an 18^th century French Rococo oak hollow fronton frame; with asymmetric rocaille crest with florets; pierced and cut-out fluted sight edge; 43 x 31.5 cm.; estimate: €400-600

Lot 40: an 18^th century French Louis XVI circular fronton frame; with ribbon bow crest; astragal-&-triple bead sight edge; 21.5 cm. diam.; estimate: €250-350

Lot 48: an 18^th century French Louis XVI oak fronton frame; with outset upper corners, with egg-&-dart and beading beneath the top edge; a crest comprising a scrolled cartouche to which is ‘nailed’ a trompe l’oeil bow of ribbon, and from which depend two festoons of bay leaves bound with crossed ribbons, and fixed to the frieze corners with further trompe l’oeil ‘nails’, with branches of bay leaves threaded through the scrolls of the cartouche;  rais-de-coeur and leaf-enriched astragal-&-triple pearl at sight edge; 141 x 107 cm.; estimate: €6,000-8,000

Catalogue note: This frame is very similar to one carved by François-Joseph Duret (1729-1816), master carver to M. le Comte de Provence. One of his pieces frames a portrait after François-Hubert Drouais, now at the Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Angers (see the Revue de l’art, 1987).

Lot 66: a 17^th century Italian cassetta, described as ‘Piedmontese’ but could equally be Tuscan, Emilian, &c.; with centred spiral ribbon; frieze painted with a faux tortoiseshell finish; centred bound garland of bay leaves at the sight edge; 89 x 68.5 cm.; estimate: €1,500-2,000

Label on reverse indicates that it framed a work by Degas, and belonged to the dealer Ambroise Vollard (1866-1939)

Lot 67: a 17^th-18^th century Baroque Spanish carved and pierced limewood polychrome leaf frame; with bunched bay leaves clasped at the centres; C-scrolled rails joined by shell corners; centred and bound bay leaf garland at the sight edge; parcel-gilt and painted dull green; 38 x 28.5 cm.; estimate: €800-1,200

Lot 76: a 19^th century Netherlandish ebonized frame; 59.5 x 48 cm.; estimate: €600-800

Lot 77: a 19^th century Italian lacquer frame with deeply canted profile; painted with beading either side of a frieze decorated likewise with painted silver scrolling foliage; 29.5 x 24 cm.; estimate: €250-300

Lot 95: a late 17^th century French Provençale Louis XIV reverse frame; husk moulding at back edge; opposed C-scroll foliate strapwork on a cross-hatched ground, with floral sprigs on a diapered ground, with têtes espagnolettes on enriched diapered ground in the corners, and small standing draped putti on brackets at lateral centres, sculptural flowers at top centre, and shallow relief flowers at base; ovolo chain at sight edge; losses of gesso and gilding; 67 x 54.5 cm.; estimate: 3,500-4,500

Lot 96: a 17^th century Baroque Spanish reverse frame; painted black and polished; 41.5 x 33.5 cm.: estimate: €800-900

Lot 97: a 17^th century torus frame, possibly Emilian; with flowered back edge; acanthus and leaf tip torus; centred bay leaf moulding at sight edge; 20.5 x 16 cm.; estimate: €600-800

Lot 107: a 16^th century Tuscan tondo, with five orders of ornament: leaf tip back edge; imbricated scales; leaf tip; double guilloche torus; leaf tip sight edge; 69 cm. diam.; estimate €8,000-12,000

Lot 108: a 17^th century Netherlandish bolection frame in oak; with cross-cut acanthus ogee; fluted sight edge; 40 x 35.5 cm.; estimate: €600-800

Lot 109: a 17^th century French Louis XIII garland frame carved in oak; with bay leaves and berries at the back edge, depending from the top centre; with acanthus leaf corners and centres; garland of sunflowers on the top edge; beads at sight edge; 77 x 56 cm.; estimate: €4,000-6,000

Label on reverse of Maison Lebrun

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