Old frame info?

Jay H

PFG, Picture Framing God
Joined
Dec 8, 2003
Posts
9,908
Location
KY
Where had Baer been lately?

A client brought in this old beat up frame to be resized or at least reassembled. I love projects like this, as this is as close as I will likely ever come to "building" a frame. I love taking something that had little value and even less purpose and revitalizing it into something useful.

While I don't think this is a Louie the 17 or 14 or whatever, I do think this was reasonably old. Just for my own curiosity can anybody reasonably date this? I'm quite certain it is older than miter sanders, underpinners, and 10" saws. All of these were completely useless.

Its 4.5" wide and 3" tall.

If not look at my fun project anyway.

“TOOT TOOT” there’s that horn.


old frame 1.jpg


old frame 2.jpg
 
Ohh yea the painting is reasonably old too. The construction of the stretcher bars was amazing. To a young punk like me anyway.
 
Really, that frame is pretty cool (for an old guy.) I have one in a very similar profile that someone brought in about 12 years ago for me to cut down.

Normally it's not a big problem but this one never went together right. He wanted a 20x24 and I think we're down to about 5x7 now.

I haven't tried the "new" miter sander on it yet, so thanks for the reminder. I'd really love to be able to call him up and say, "That frame you brought in 12 years ago is ready. Make sure you pick it up this week, or I'm burning it."
 
If its anything like this one it would burn very very fast.
 
Ron, you make me laugh! That's a good thing.
12 years to finish an order. That must be some kind of record. Guess people shouldn't tell you to take your time!
 
Things people shouldn't say to me in my shop:

</font>
  • Take your time. No hurry.</font>
  • Money is no object. I want your best.</font>
  • It must be nice to keep banker's hours.</font>
  • Where's your dog?</font>
 
Looks very 19th century to me. If it was English I would expect a veneered finish on deal or pine carcass, but from the mitred ends it seems to be a gesso/compo smoothing covering which would suggest a paint/stain/polish finish.
The gold/gilt front edge appears in the full frame, front view appears cracked (?) across the moulding which would suggest compo base.How were the corners joined?
My best guess would be 1870-1900 ish.
 
Yes the whole thing (almost all of it) is gesso. The gold the finish... well you can see in the picture. Very brittle. Did I mention it was brittle? Its hard to say how the corners were joined. I couldn't see anything that resembled glue and it had about 1000 square nails of various sizes that once held the mitres.

The finish looks painted to look like a wood grain to me.
 
I have a portrait of my great grandfather; it's in a frame that looks very much like the one you're dealing with. He was born in 1846 and appears to be maybe 3 or 4 years old in the photograph. So I would agree with the early end of Alan's estimate.

Kit
 
Jay, The profile does look like a late 19th cen.

The square nails would suggest pre-1926. The gesso/plaster shell suggests a machine shape, but I have also seen some amazing hand pulled plaster shells.

The oil to my blurry eyes looks either "Primitive" or un-professionally done. That nice a frame would suggest to me the former, not the later.

In the little picture the moulding appears to be all out of one piece, as appossed to a "glue-up", which would also speak to an era of excessive use of woods. The rabitt suggests that I would be looking in the post Federal or post civil war era or early art & crafts. Faux wood grain was big around the turn of that century.

Ask Hugh?

baer
 
From the photo, this looks like a Civil War Era
profile, that was common on old photos and was
called "Deep well." It is likely to have silver
gilding with orange shellac over it that makes
it look gold. Such finishes are likely to develop
characteristic oxidation spots, where the shellac
breaks down. It could also date from later decades
as Baer suggested and since it is a running profile and not terribly rare, re-sizing it is
not really a problem.

Hugh
 
I think you’re right on about the shellac. The gold was oxidized and it looked really neat.

Thanks for the help. This customer was very pleased with the finished look.

She actually went and got it from another shop that had it for 4 months (I don't think it was Ron). I couldn't wait to start on it the very day she brought it in. I finished it the next morning and she thinks I'm a picture framing god now. Little does she know.......

A few days later the shop called her begging her to bring it back saying "I know where you took it and he don't have the right equipment to even do the job. He will tear it up." She said "I don't think so as its already hanging on my wall and looks beautiful."

Thanks for the help friends.
 
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