WWII style picture frames

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Dancinbaer

Dancinbaer

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Apr 26, 2002
Posts
1,267
Loc
De Pere, WI
I have a customer who collects WWII German "stuff". Today when he picked up the two pieces I just finished, he mentioned he is attending a show in Louisville soon and will have more for me to frame. The pieces we've done so far have been framed with whatever looks good, usually a plain black frame. I was thinking it might be cool (and a better sale) if I used moulding that resembled what might have been used during WWII.

Sooooo....does anyone have a source, with examples of frames used during WWII?

Googled WWII picture frames and all I got was eBay listings. I would like something a little more reliable.

Thanks,
 
I shudder to think of what might have been used by Germans for picture frames back during WWII, but then, I'm Jewish.
 
You are talking about an era when just about everything was rationed. Picture framing was not on the top of everyones list. I think you should look at the popular furniture styles of the era to get a feel of what was being used. In Germany, finely finished woods were popular, I am talking high gloss hand rubbed finishes on quality woods. To get a feel for it, look at furniture and frames from the 1930s. During the forties, most production facilities were devoted to the war effort. Fashion was more of an extension of pre-war styles.

I took in a collection of Nazi flags and such for framing years ago for a "collector". I do not know what I was thinking. That whole project made my skin crawl and I couldn't wait to get it out of my store.

Since then, I refer such items to other framers. I felt it just put bad vibes on my whole business and myself. I am not Jewish, I just can not get past what happened to all those people during those years. I hope I never do.

John
 
I have found one of the best sources of design for this period of framing is in the Works of Art section of the Imperial War Museum in London. As JRB said, general austerity meant that either people couldn't afford flashy frames, or if they could, were hesitant to been seen to be over-ostentatious. Consequently, understated quiet frames were the order of the day.

I would suggest oak mouldings, oil gilded on red oxide paint with grain showing through and then distressed and antiqued, antiqued unpolished wide bare wood mouldings with dull linen slips, or architectural mouldings such as architraves and door mouldings used as picture frames, painted off white.

Paul Hardy
 
I asked just about this same question a few weeks ago.
Don't have time to look right now, but it is here somewhere.
 
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