The Frame Blog

A large and varied sale of 358 lots of frames, this will be held at 22 via San Marco, Genoa, on Wednesday 15 April 2026, from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm local time. Viewing is from 10-14 April.

This review offers a a very small glimpse of what is on offer; see the online catalogue for the whole collection.

Note that in the catalogue the dimensions aren’t consistently given as height before width, although the frames below have their measurements in the right order as far as is possible to determine. Also the orientation of some of the frames is landscape in real life, rather than portrait (or vice versa), as shown in the catalogue; although the reverse views, often with antique hangers, are shown the right way round. Some frames have been wrongly catalogued: for example, lot 10 has nothing to do with Sansovino frames; lot 151 looks more Venetian than French; and lot 315 isn’t North Italian but a late 19th or 20th century reproduction British Auricular frame (specifically, a copy of a Sunderland pattern); see also below. Note, too, that many frames have been cut down, regilded, repainted, and/or often lacquered to the unpleasant consistency of a toffee apple, without its being recorded in the entries; better an ancient and slightly battered frame than one which has been titivated out of all chronological verity. Caveat emptor.

Lot 3: 16^th century Italian frame in Sansovino style (possibly provincial?) in giltwood; slightly canted profile; roughly carved crossing scrolls, the flutes suggested; stylized and worn acanthus sight edge; antique hanger; 52.4 x 44.3 cm.; estimate: €1,500-2,000

Lot 11: 16^th century Italian aedicular frame with coffered canopy in carved and polychromed giltwood; the entablature supported by pilasters having a cream frieze decorated with arabesques, and capitals with palmettes and egg-&-dart, and bearing leafy modillions beneath the cornice; the coffers of the canopy with a blue ground holding six different rosettes, carved in relief; the frieze of the entablature also painted blue and inscribed ‘AVE REGINA ANGELORUM’, a contraction of the antiphon for the Virgin Mary, ‘Ave regina caelorum,/ Ave domina angelorum’ (Hail, Queen of Heaven,/ Hail, Mistress of angels’), which dates from the 12^th century. It became topical from 1569, when Pope Pius V laid down its use at compline from February to Easter; this may have a bearing both on the date of the frame and the subject of the painting it originally held. The frieze of the predella panel was also once inscribed, but is now unreadable (in the photographs) save for a single ‘O’. Overall measurements: 103 x 88 cm., sight: 72.4 x 60 cm.; estimate: €4,000-5,000

Lot 20: late 16^th-17^th century Italian ebonized cassetta, with cavetto between astragals at the top edge, wide frieze, and stepped convex and concave moulding to the sight edge; the frieze decorated at the corners and centres with foliate and floral ornaments in mordant gilding (the large flowers at the centres could be interpreted as daisies, signifying humility, or marigolds, the flower of Mary); antique hanger; 42.5 x 33.5 cm.; estimate: €500-600

Lot 26: 17^th century Baroque Italian reverse ebonized and parcel-gilt cassetta, with small back edge moulding, frieze, and high stepped convex and concave mouldings at the top/ sight edge; ogee and cavetto to sight; the frieze decorated at the corners and centres with scrolling foliate flourishes in mordant gilding, with flowers at the demi-centres; old but not original hanger; 63.5 x 41 cm.; estimate: €600-800

Lot 33: 17^th century, probably Sienese, ebonized and parcel-gilt octagonal frame in portrait orientation, with torus, striped in black and gold, at top edge; the frieze with cursive, scrolling lilies in mordant gilding; overall: 104 x 89 cm., sight: 72 x 58 cm.; estimate: €1,000-1,200

Lot 37: 17^th > century Baroque Italian reverse polychrome and parcel-gilt cassetta, with small back edge moulding, frieze, and stepped convex and concave mouldings at the top/ sight edge; fillet to sight; the frieze revealing the butt joints of the façade and one of the wooden dowels which secure it (top left), and decorated with faux tortoiseshell; 73 x 96 cm. in this orientation (modern hanger on one short side); estimate: €1,000-1,500

Lot 65: 17^th century Baroque Spanish reverse carved parcel-gilt and polychromed frame with outset corners; small concave mouldings at back and sight edges; deep ebonized ogee rising to the top/ sight edge; the frieze painted with a faux tortoiseshell (tiger-striped) effect, possibly over a gilded ground (or with a red lacquer on the gesso ground); ornamented with applied deep relief carved giltwood scrolling acanthus leaf and floret clasps across the width of the frame at corners and centres, the corners with scallop shells; antique hanger; 94 x 78.7 cm., estimate: €3,200-4,000

Lot 78: a pair of 18th century Baroque Italian reverse carved giltwood frames; beading at top edge; the frieze carved overall with a imbricated floral garland (probably of single roses) where the flowers flow from corner to centre and from centre to corner, meeting at the demi-centres of each rail; egg-&-dart rising to the top edge with (on one frame) a stylized running leaf at the top/sight edge and (on the other frame) beading. The roses may indicate that these frames originally held painting concerning the Madonna – for example, the Virgin Annunciate and Angel, the Mater Dolorosa and an Ecce Homo – or perhaps two female saints; or they may have held secular female portraits. 38 x 33 cm. each; antique hangers: estimate: €1,000-1,500

Lot 106: 17^th century Baroque, probably Spanish, reverse giltwood leaf frame, with ogee bolection profile; rolled back edge over which giant carved lobed and curled leaves or petals flow up towards the top edge, from which smaller versions of the same leaves or petals curve down to meet them; astragal-&-quadruple bead at sight edge. The corners are carved with double-headed eagles in deep relief; if this is (as suggested in the catalogue) an Italian frame, the only emblematic connection would be to the town of Velletri, of which it is the impresa, but the style of the carving suggests that this is in fact a Spanish frame, when the double-headed eagle would be the emblem of the Holy Roman Empire, and of the Habsburg monarchy in Spain. With antique hanger; 58 x 45.5 cm.; estimate: €3,000-5,000

Lot 112: 18^th century Baroque carved and lacquered silverleaf ‘mecca’ frame; with stepped concave moulding, the frieze positioned centrally at the top forward edge, with large projecting acanthus leaf corners flaring over the rail from the sight edge, and leaflets emerging in trompe l’oeil fashion from beneath, and curling over, the frieze; the acanthus leaves are veined in punchwork and the frieze has a punched diapered pattern; no photograph of reverse; 68.7 x 52 cm.; estimate: €1,200-1,500

Lot 149: 18^th century Baroque Italian (Roman) carved giltwood Salvator Rosa gallery frame with hollow profile; with egg-&-dart and leaf corners at the back edge; plain convex top edge with enriched ribbon-&-stave moulding applied beneath it; acanthus-&-shield at the sight edge; the corner configurations appear to be intact; 49 x 38 cm. but evidence on the reverse that it was hung in landscape orientation; estimate: €800-1,200

Lot 158: 18^th century Venetian Rococo carved giltwood panel frame with ogee profile; convex back edge with undulating strapwork and buds on a cross-hatched ground; the ogee with scrolling foliate and rocaille corners trailing floral rinceaux down the rail, on a cross hatched ground, with shaped mirrored reposes at the centres; acanthus-&-leaf bud sight edge on a cross-hatched ground; 87.3 x 65.7 cm. (evidence of hanging in portrait orientation); €500-600

Lot 162: 18^th century NeoClassical carved giltwood fronton frame, possibly north Italian (described at Genoese), with architrave profile; acanthus leaf-&-dart; spiral ribbon sight edge, centred on the short sides; with reversed swan’s neck pediment with acanthus leaf and rosette scrolls after the Antique, and an acanthus leaf plinth supporting an urn from which spring an asymmetric leafy flourish at the crest and festoons of leaves and flowers which depend on either side of the frame; and with a matching apron of acanthus leaf and rosette scrolls, with leaves and buds springing up the lateral rails; antique hanger, with possible evidence of an earlier hanger?; 31 x 24.5 cm.; estimate: €1,000-1,200

Lot 174: late 16^th -17^th century Italian (described at Piedmontese) carved giltwood garland frame, with torus profile; decorated with a bound and centred imbricated bay leaf garland; 61 x 46.7 cm.: estimate: €1,000-1,200

Lot 180: 17^th-18^th century Italian parcel-gilt and polychromed cassetta; entablature profile, with astragal-&-double bead; wide frieze in celadon green, with trompe l’oeil arabesques and rosettes painted in shades of ochre, soft yellow and dark brown at the corners and centres; stepped convex and concave mouldings to the sight edge; antique hanger; 80 x 66 cm.; estimate: €800-1,200

Lot 186: 18^th century Baroque Italian reverse complex moulding frame in carved giltwood, with concave and ogee profile; stylized acanthus tip on the ogee at the back edge; centred leaf tip-&-ovolo chain moulding; the shallow hollow frieze decorated in punchwork with undulating acanthus leaves and tulip flowers, and with small birds on the lateral rails; large scrolling foliate and shell corners and centres covering the frieze and its outer moulding; cabochons above a leaf-&-shield moulding at the sight edge; two antique hangers; 101 x 75 cm.; estimate: €2,000-2,500

Lot 190: 18^th century Baroque Italian (Roman) carved and parcel-gilt Carlo Maratta frame with hollow profile; with egg-&-dart at the back edge; applied carved spiral ribbon moulding beneath the convex top edge; double acanthus leaf-tip at the sight edge; ebonized, polished and picked out in gilding; evidence of hanging on the short side; 61 x 48.5 cm.; estimate: €800-1,200

Lot 266: late 19^th century Continental artist’s frame in walnut with gilded cavetto at sight edge; 45.3 x 33.5 cm.: estimate: €50-100

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There are many other single and groups of frames. The online catalogue in book-form is here, and as a downloadable pdf here.

For further information, email: info@cambiaste.com

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