RESEARCH AND PUBLICATIONS

Research in progress/information wanted
Elizabeth Cant has submitted her MA at Flinders University of South Australia on Framemaking in 19th-century Australia . The thesis looks at the emigrant framemakers in the context of the colonial art scene, where they came from and the nature of the organisation of their trade; it has an index of identified framemakers and their clients and includes an alphabetical list of framemakers in each colony. The nature of construction and decoration of the Australian 19th-century frame and the style (profile) changes from 1830 to 1900 are discussed. E-mail: lizcant@senet.com.au

Edgar Harden is working on stamped rococo and neoclassical French picture frames and mirrors. See Subject of the Month: "Identifying the Framemakers of 18th-century Paris". This research follows up on a thesis on the lives and work of the Infroit and Cherin families of frame makers at the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts in New York City. Edgar Harden would appreciate any information from readers of this newsletter on stamped picture frames as well as examples of paintings to which they might be original, especially if they have a provenance. He is also working on a book on the 17th and 18th-century French picture frame. He would be interested in hearing about particularly fine or unusual frames of this period. Royal frames and frames with the paintings for which they were made, especially if they have a provenance are of particular interest. Responses to Edgar Harden, European Furniture Department, Christie's Inc., 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020. E-mail: eharden@christies.com

Laura Houliston has recently completed her MPhil at Glasgow University on Framemaking in Edinburgh 1790-1830. Her thesis considers particular aspects of the framemaking trade in Edinburgh with discussion focusing on specific frames and craftsmen related to three top Scottish portraitists of the period. It includes an alphabetical listing of Edinburgh makers active in the period 1790-1830, now published in Regional Furniture. E-mail: l.houliston@vam.ac.uk

Magdalena Kozera has completed her MPhil at the Royal College of Art/Victoria and Albert Museum joint conservation course, on Mounting and Framing in British Photographic Exhibitions 1851-1916. She has now begun her PhD on Technology and Techniques of Mounts and Frames used with Photographs 1851-1916, concentrating on a detailed technical study of photographic enclosures, including materials, technology and manufacture of frames and mounts.

Jacob Simon is researching the Robert Tull account book, shown in The Art of the Picture Frame exhibition, with a view to publication. Information would be welcome on the picture frames of Catherine Read, one of Tull's main customers. He is preparing an article on the glazing of pictures by museums and artists, with consequent alterations to frames; information on documented examples would be welcome. He is also preparing an article on Sir Henry Raeburn and picture frames following on the success of the recent Raeburn exhibition. In the meantime an information sheet on Raeburn's frames prepared as an exhibition guide is available on receipt of a stamped addressed envelope. E-mail: jsimon@npg.org.uk

Caroline D. Smith is a PhD student at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her field of study is 19th-century American fine and decorative arts. Her dissertation will focus on 19th-century and early 20th-century American frames and several of the artists who designed or commissioned frames for their paintings. Eli Wilner and Co. of New York City has recently awarded Caroline a research grant. Currently she is investigating frames by John Frederick Kensett, Elihu Vedder, Charles Caryl Coleman, William Merritt Chase, John Singer Sargent, Robert Blum, and Robert Henri. She would be glad to receive information, suggestions, or questions. E-mail: carolinedsmith@mindspring.com.

Ablett, Annie, three articles in The Picture Restorer: 'The Frame: Its Purpose to Protect', no. 17, Spring 2000, pp. 13-16 and no. 18, Autumn 2000, pp. 9-11; 'The Frame: Its Purpose to Enhance', no. 21, Spring 2002, pp. 9-12 (on problems in conserving historic frames and in maintaining their ornamental appearance in relationship to the painting).

Adams, Lorraine, 'Restoration leads to Historical Reunion', The Washington Post, 24 October 2002 (on a large Italian Renaissance two-tier polyptych frame made in about 1490 for the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie at Cortemaggiore in Emilia-Romagna, acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1884, subsequently purchased by Paul Levi, now restored by William Adair and, after much detective work, generously donated to its original home where it has been reunited with the original paintings by Filippo Mazuoli from the National Museum in Parma).

Bailey, W.H., Defining Edges: A New Look at Picture Frames, Harry N. Abrams, Inc, New York. 2002, 136 pp., copiously illustrated mainly in colour (considers individual works of art in relation to their frames, from a Byzantine gospel cover via pictures by Michelangelo and Ferdinand Bol to late 20th-century paintings. The works are grouped in loose categories: 'The Frame as Altarpiece', 'The Frame as Window', 'Frames Designed by Artists', etc).

Bradbury, Oliver, and Nicholas Penny, 'The picture collecting of Lord Northwick: Part II', Burlington Magazine, vol. 144, October 2002, pp. 606-17, 19 illustrations (on Northwick's building and furnishing of the picture gallery at Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham and his employment of two London framemakers, Henry George Eckford [fl. 1830s-40s] and Henry Haynes [fl. 1830s]).

Child, Robert, ' Woodworm in Picture Frames, The Picture Restorer, no. 22, Autumn 2002, pp. 14-15.

English Heritage, Gilding: Approaches to Treatment. A joint conference of English Heritage and the United Kingdom Institute for Conservation, 27-28 September 2000, English Heritage, 2001, 84 pp., 66 illustrations (includes essays by Louisa Davey on framing at the National Gallery, by Sarah Staniforth on frame conservation in National Trust houses, and by John Anderson on framing solutions at the Tate Gallery).

Franklin, David and Louis Alexander Waldman, 'Two late altarpieces by Bachiacca', Apollo, vol. 154, August 2001, pp. 30-5, 9 illustrations (reproduces and discusses Bachiacca's Baptism of Christ of 1543 in Buggiano, still in its magnificent original frame, for which some documentation exists).

Hopkinson, Martin, 'Whistler's First One-man Show in Venice', Print Quarterly, vol. 19, March 2002, pp. 63-4, 1 illustration (reproduces a Whistler etching in its original frame designed by the artist).

Möller, Renate, Bilder- und Spiegelrahmen, Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich and Berlin, 2001, 134pp., numerous colour illustrations of variable quality (a basic introduction to the history of picture and mirror frames).

Newbery, Timothy, Frames and Framings in the Ashmolean Museum, Ashmolean Museum, 2002 (so dated but published 2003), 80pp., 37 colour illustrations plus cross-sections (with a brief introduction on the history of frames, this instructive booklet catalogues thirty-four of the most notable frames in the museum, describing their style, construction and finish, and encompassing examples ranging from 14th-century Italy to 20th-century Britain).

Nützmann, Hannelore (ed), Schöne Rahmen: Aus den Beständen der Berliner Gemäldegalerie, exh. cat., Berlin 2002, 85pp., copiously illustrated (catalogue to accompany the exhibition reviewed above as Beautiful Frames).

Schmuecker, Emma, 'The use and identification of traditional techniques and materials for the conservation and restoration of picture frames', The Picture Restorer, no. 21, Spring 2002, pp. 13-17, 5 figures (discusses the conflicts inherent in stabilizing a frame without irreversibly altering its construction, appearance or evidence of its history; describes the various materials traditionally used in the decoration of frames).

Schölzel, Christoph, 'Der Dresdener Galerierahmen Geschichte, Technik, Restaurierung', ZKK: Zeitschrift für Kunsttechnologie und Konservierung, vol. 16, 2002, pp. 104-29, 34 illustrations (considers the 18th-century livery or gallery frames in the Gëmaldegalerie, Dresden, together with their makers, construction and restoration).

Wildenstein, Daniel, Gauguin: A Savage in the Making (Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings 1873-1888), Skira/Wildenstein Institute, vol. 1, 2002 (p. 112 contains a brief essay, 'Gauguin and the modern frame'; p. 180, 'The decorated frame' with illustration; and there are other scattered references to Gauguin's views on framing).

For earlier publications, see the bibliographies in Paul Mitchell and Lynn Roberts, A History of European Frames, 1996 (also published in The Dictionary of Art, 1996), and Jacob Simon, The Art of the Picture Frame, Artists Patrons and the Framing of Portraits in Britain, National Portrait Gallery, 1996.

By country: Australia
Melbourne Journal of Technical Studies in Art, vol. 1, Frames, University of Melbourne Conservation Service, 1999, 156 pp., 31 illustrations (this first volume of a handsome new periodical is largely devoted to Australian picture framing, with seven articles, listed below, three on Melbourne, one each on Sydney and Tasmania, and articles on the framing of J.M.W. Turner's watercolours and on the care of frames).

Cant, Elizabeth, 'Entrepreneurship and Picture Frame Making in Nineteenth-Century Australia. Lawrence Cetta and the Quick Profit', The World of Antiques and Art (incorporating The Australian Antique Collector), July-December 1999, pp. 44-5 (on the career of an Italian immigrant picture frame and looking glass maker in Sydney from 1843 to 1853).

Cant, Elizabeth, 'Does Gideon Saint have the answer? Pattern books and picture frame making in 19th century Australia', Australiana, vol. 21, November 1999, pp. 117-20, eleven illustrations, seven in colour (on the possible influence of pattern books on Australian picture framemakers).

Cant, Elizabeth, 'Gilded Sand and the Decoration of the Nineteenth-Century Australian Picture Frame', The World of Antiques and Art (incorporating The Australian Antique Collector), December 1999-June 2000, pp. 40-2, 5 figures plus diagrams (on the work of two 19th-century framemaking businesses in Melbourne).

Dredge, Paula, 'Sydney Trade Directories 1843-1932: Carvers, Gilders and Picture Framemakers', Melbourne Journal of Technical Studies in Art, vol. 1, 1999, pp. 49-80, seven illustrations of framemakers' adverts and labels (a listing by decade of Sydney framemakers derived from trade directories).

Espinoza, Ana Maria, 'A Framemaker of Colonial Melbourne: Isaac Whitehead c.1819-1881', Melbourne Journal of Technical Studies in Art, vol. 1, 1999, pp. 33-48, 12 line illustrations of Whitehead's frames (a survey of the frames of the painter and framemaker, Isaac Whitehead).

Fahy, Kevin, and Andrew Simpson, Australian Furniture: Pictorial History and Dictionary, 1788-1938, Casuarina Press, Woollahra, 1998 (a beautifully illustrated survey, with a biographical dictionary [pp.18-138] of furniture makers, framemakers, including many carvers & gilders and framemakers, reproducing makers' labels and stamps; plates 292-316 reproduce picture, print, photograph and mirror frames from c.1835 to c.1920, in plain wood and gilt frames, many by known makers).

Maddock, Hilary, 'Picture Framemakers in Melbourne c.1860-1930', Melbourne Journal of Technical Studies in Art, vol. 1, 1999, pp. 1-32 (a listing by decade of Melbourne framemakers derived from trade directories; two firms, Whitehead's and Thallon's, led the framemaking trade in Melbourne; they are treated at more length elsewhere in this volume).

Mulford, Therese, Tasmanian Framemakers, 1830-1930: a directory, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, 1997, 127pp., numerous illustrations (comprehensive work reproducing many frames, labels, moulds and advertisements).

Newhouse, Claire, 'John Thallon 1848-1918', Melbourne Journal of Technical Studies in Art, vol. 1, 1999, pp. 81-98, ten illustrations, five of Thallon's framemaker's label and five in colour of his frames, with two further colour details on the publication's cover (a well-documented survey of the work of John Thallon, the leading Melbourne framemaker of the 1880s and 1890s, drawing on his framing account book of 1888-1903, surviving labelled frames and a range of other sources).

By country: Britain and Ireland
Aidin, Rose, 'Frame, Set and Match', Art Review, vol. 53, April 2001, pp. 62-5, 9 illustrations (an interview with the leading framemaker, John Jones, who has worked with Francis Bacon and Paula Rego).

Belsey, Hugh, 'Joshua Reynolds's Portrait of Mrs Walsingham', Georgian Group Journal, vol. 9, 1999, pp. 26-32 (reproducing Reynolds's portrait of Mrs Walsingham in its papier-mâché frame and publishing her correspondence with her father in May and June 1758 about choosing the frame: 'I have order'd a Famous Frame Maker to meet me at Reynolds's on Tuesday'; 'The Picture is to be 20 Guineas & the Frame 4 Guineas I own I think the Frame very reasonable, for I believe it will be very pretty. I saw some Models yesterday & bespoke one that I think very handsome.')

Bronkhurst, Judith, 'William Holman Hunt's visits to Egypt', Apollo, vol. 148, November 1998, pp. 23-29 (reproducing a frame of c.1861, designed by the artist, with decorative details copied from Owen Jones's The Grammar of Ornament, 1856).

Brothers, Hazel, 'Framing the Shibden Hall Portraits: A commission fulfilled by Anne Lister during an awkward stay in London 1833', Transactions of the Halifax Antiquarian Society, vol. 4, 1996, pp. 111-25 (charming insight into the realities of having your portraits framed - by Millbourne & Sons, no. 195 Strand, described in the Dictionary of English Furniture Makers as James Milbourne, jnr).

Cannon-Brookes, Peter, 'Picture Framing I: English Picture Frames in Three London Exhibitions, II: Leighton at the Royal Academy', Museum Management and Curatorship, vol. 15, 1996, pp. 218-25 (short reviews of Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean Britain (Tate Gallery), In Trust for the Nation: Paintings from National Trust Houses (National Gallery), Richard & Maria Cosway (National Portrait Gallery) and Lord Leighton (Royal Academy).

Cannon-Brookes, Peter, 'Picture Framing: A Conversation Piece by Gawen Hamilton and its Frame', Museum Management and Curatorship, vol. 17, no. 4, 1998, pp. 442-4, 1 figure (on a rediscovered family portrait, now in the Tate Gallery, painted to mark a wedding in 1734, and set in an 18th-century rococo frame ornamented with armorial bearings of the Bohem and Du Cane families).

Cannon-Brookes, Peter, 'Elias Ashmole, Grinling Gibbons and Three Picture Frames', Museum Management and Curatorship, vol. 18, no. 2, 1999, pp.183-89, 3 figures (traces the history of frames carved by Gibbons or his workshop 1680s for portraits of Ashmole, Charles II and James II in the Ashmolean Museum).

Clark, Mary, '"A Principal Ornament for the Mayoralty House": A Portrait by Joshua Reynolds', Irish Arts Review, vol. 15, 1999, pp. 154-6 (reproduces Reynolds's 2nd Earl of Northumberland, 1766, in the Mansion House, Dublin, with its splendid rococo frame attributed to the Dublin woodcarver, Richard Cranfield).

Falck-Therkelsen, Solveig, 'The Restoration of Seven Watts Frames at the Tate Gallery', Conservation News. The Official Newsletter of UKIC, no. 65, March 1998, pp. 34-6.

Gilbert, Christopher, Pictorial Dictionary of Marked London Furniture 1700-1840, Furniture History Society and W.S. Maney & Sons Ltd, 1996, 502 pp. (some seventy-five labelled picture, print and mirror frames and framemakers' labels are reproduced).

Graham-Dixon, Andrew, 'Revealing neurosis of art at the edge', The Independent, 5 April 1999, p. 7, originally published in the same newspaper, 5 April 1988 (Andrew Graham-Dixon talks to the artist Howard Hodgkin about where the painting stops, referring to the work of Dürer, Degas and, of course, Hodgkin himself and his attitude to framing).

Hackney, Stephen, Rica Jones and Joyce Townsend (eds.), Paint and Purpose. A study of technique in British Art, Tate Gallery Publishing, 1999. (an excellent series of case studies of British paintings ranging in date from 1594 to 1958; frames are peripheral to the main subject but are reproduced and briefly discussed on works by John Michael Wright, Holman Hunt, Watts and Whistler. What is more, an illuminating letter to the Tate Gallery, 28 June 1979, in which Ben Nicholson set out his attitude to framing is quoted:

I have considered the frame which surrounds a work of mine as a vital part of its presentation. Therefore, I have always seen to the framing of my work myself . . .

1. Frames should be made of natural wood with little graining and of a colour which is not too hot, nor too yellow, and which is not stained or varnished.

2. The corners of the frame should not be mitred diagonally. The four sides should abutt each other, aligned so that the top side extends over the left side vertical and that the right-side vertical rises so as to extend over the side of the top lateral. Similarly, the left-side vertical is to extend across the end of the bottom lateral while the bottom lateral is to extend across the end of the right-side vertical.

Hickey, Dave, 'The rules of the frame', Tate, Tate Gallery, Summer 2000, pp. 38-41, 5 figures (with reference to an exhibition of J.M.W. Turner's works with their frames removed, at Tate Liverpool, 2000, the author describes his similar exhibition of sixty unframed works from the 17th to the 20th century at the Dallas Museum of Art in the 1990s).

Houliston, Laura, 'Frame Making in Edinburgh 1790-1830', Regional Furniture, vol. 13, 1999, pp. 58-77, six illustrations (an excellent survey of framemaking and leading Scottish framemakers in the period 1790-1830 with particular reference to their work for the three leading portraitists of the time, David Martin, Henry Raeburn and Archibald Skirving, and an appendix of Edinburgh makers of the period derived from trade directories).

Houliston, Laura, see Raeburn's Rival, Archibald Skirving 1749-1819: a Review of the Frames

Mitchell, Paul, and Lynn Roberts, 'Notes on Turner's Picture Frames', Museum Management and Curatorship, vol. 17, 1998 (so dated but published 2000), pp. 324-33, two illustrations (a survey of surviving original frames on Turner's work and of his attitude to framing, with a discussion of the framing of his work by the National Gallery, notably by John Ruskin, and a note on Turner's framemakers). A shorter version published as 'Frames', in Evelyn Joll, Martin Butlin and Luke Herrmann (eds.), The Oxford Companion to J.M.W. Turner, Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 113-14, 1 illustration.

Mitchell, Paul, and Lynn Roberts, 'Burne-Jones's picture frames', Burlington Magazine, vol. 141, 2000, pp. 362-70, 15 illustrations (a survey of the various frames designed or employed by Burne-Jones throughout his career).

Murdoch, Tessa, 'Jean, René and Thomas Pelletier, a Huguenot family of carvers and gilders in England 1682-1726', Burlington Magazine, vol. 139, 1997, pp. 732-42, 7 illustrations of picture frames (richly carved frames by the Pelletiers, c.1689-1709, mainly at Boughton House, and the wider context).

Scott, Peter Kennedy, A romantic look at Norwich School landscapes by a handful of great little masters, Acer Art, Ipswich, 1998, pp. 95-104 (reproducing four labels and four frames in colour in a chapter on framing the work of the Norwich School).

Shinn, Masako H., 'Mortimer Luddinton Menpes: A Japanophile in Victorian England', Apollo, vol. 154, November 2001, pp. 13-20, 12 colour illustrations (two pages and three illustrations are devoted to the distinctive Japanese frames designed by Menpes for his work).

Simon, Jacob, 'A note on Arthur Melville (1855-1904) and picture frames', Museum Management and Curatorship, vol.16, 1997, pp. 427-33 (reproduces five frames on the work of this Scottish watercolour and oil painter). The

Simon, Jacob, see A note on George Romney and picture framing

Simon, Jacob, see Notes on John Singer Sargent's portrait frames

Simon, Jacob, see A frame by Martha Somerville, a Victorian carver in Italy

Simon, Jacob, see Oxford frames

Simon, Jacob, see Framing in the reign of Charles II and the introduction of the Sunderland frame

Sloan, Kim, J.M.W. Turner. Watercolours from the R.W. Lloyd Bequest to the British Museum, exh. cat., 1998, pp. 2, 19-21, 60, 88 (with an account of the framing of Lloyd's watercolours by Agnew's in the 1910s).

van Breda, Cobus, 'J.M.W. Turner: At the Watercolour's Edge', Melbourne Journal of Technical Studies in Art, vol. 1, 1999, pp. 137-46, 2 illustrations (documents Turner's preference for close framing his watercolours in gilt frames, and discusses Ruskin's approach and the subsequent rise in the use of white mounts).

van der Ploeg, Peter and Carola Vermeeren, Princely Patrons. The Collection of Frederick Henry of Orange and Amalia of Solms in The Hague, exh. cat., Mauritshuis, The Hague, and Waanders Publishers, Zwolle, 1997, pp. 164-9 (on a marvellous set of twelve 'beauties' from the court of Charles I, perhaps dating to the early 1640s, all in matching English auricular frames of the period).

Wiggins, Arnold, & Sons, four modest but attractive fold-out card publications from this firm:

• A Hang of English Frames 1620-1920, 1996 (reproduces eleven framemakers' labels)
• Flaming June, 1996 (recreating a frame for Leighton's picture)
• Lawrence, Morant and a Picture Frame from Harewood, 1996 (similar text to the article by Michael Gregory in Museum Management and Curatorship, vol. 15, 1996, pp. 423-6).
• Frames for Drawings, no date but c. 2001(brief essay and 8 illustrations, mainly of 17th-century frames).
  

By country: Flemish
See also Collections under London, National Gallery

Verougstraete, Hélène and Roger Van Schoute, 'Frames and supports in Campin's Time', in Susan Foister and Susie Nash (eds), Robert Campin. New Directions in Scholarship, 1996, pp. 87-93.

Verougstraete, Hélène and Roger Van Schoute, 'The Origin and Significance of Marbling and Monochrome Paint Layers on Frames and Supports in Netherlandish Painting of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries', in Ashok Roy and Perry Smith (eds.), Painting Techniques, History, Materials and Studio Practice, International Institute for Conservation on the occasion of the Dublin Congress, September 1998, pp. 98-100.

Verougstraete, Hélène and Roger Van Schoute, 'Frames and Supports of Some Eyckian Paintings', in Susan Foister, Sue Jones and Delphine Cool (eds.), Investigating Jan Van Eyck, Turnhout, Belgium, 2000, pp. 107-17, 6 figures (examines in detail the construction, mouldings and decoration of frames on portraits and altarpieces by Van Eyck).

Wadum, Jorgen, 'Historical Overview of Panel-Making Techniques in the Northern Countries', in Kathleen Dardes and Andrea Rothe (eds.), The Structural Conservation of Panel Paintings, proceedings of a symposium at the J. Paul Getty Museum, 24-28 April 1995, The Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, 1998, pp. 149-177 (with a section on the construction and fitting of early Antwerp frames including good illustrations).

Wadum, Jorgen, 'The Antwerp Brand on Paintings on Panel', in Erma Hermens (ed.), Looking Through Paintings, Leids Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, vol.11, 1998, pp. 179-98 (primarily concerning panel paintings; however the rules of the Antwerp Joiners' Guild from 1617 specify that 'every joiner is obliged to impress his mark on frames and panels made by him'. The use of such a mark on picture frames of the period is described in another paper by Wadum, 'The Winter Room at Rosenborg Castle', Apollo, vol.128, 1988, pp. 82-7).

By country: France

Harden, Edgar, 'Claude et les quatre Louis' Dossier de l'Art, no. 58, June 1999, pp. 64-7 (reproducing four early views of Claude Monet's studio and discussing Monet's use of fine old frames for his pictures, especially those in the Louis XVI style).

Harden, Edgar, see Identifying the Framemakers of 18th-century Paris

Penny, Nicholas, see Notes on the Frames in the Exhibition, Portraits by Ingres

Raurich, Gérard and Françoise Coffrant, Encadrements d'artistes, Éditions Fleurus, Paris, 1998, 124 pp., numerous colour illustrations. (the gimmicky side of recent French frames, as chosen by a string of minor artists, with a few interesting illustrations of earlier frames, mainly French late 19th and early 20th century).

Siefert, Helge, Claude-Joseph Vernet 1714-1789, exh. cat, Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1997, pp. 32-4, 85-7 ( a section of the catalogue is devoted to the frames on Vernet's work, eight of which are reproduced; four frames have the stamp of E.L. INFROIT (for Etienne Louis Infroit, see Identifying the Framemakers of 18th-century Paris). It is worth noting that Vernet preferred straight sided frames in the Roman taste to the curves and ornaments of the baroque. See also Philip Conisbee's review of Siefert's catalogue in the Burlington Magazine, vol. 139, 1997, pp. 567-68).

By country: Holland

Baarsen, Reinier, 'Herman Doomer, ebony worker in Amsterdam', Burlington Magazine, vol. 138, 1996, pp. 739-49 (on the work of Herman Doomer (d. 1650), a leading Amsterdam ebony worker who not only made cabinets and mirror frames but also produced picture frames; his portrait in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, was painted by Rembrandt in 1640, leading to speculation that he supplied Rembrandt with frames; his workshop may have produced frames for other painters who appear among a list of debtors in his widow's post-mortem inventory in 1678; the attribution to Doomer of a splendid cabinet in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, has led to the identification of another cabinet, with wavy mouldings and auricular detailing, at The Argory, a National Trust house in Northern Ireland, see Simon Jervis, 'Ebony at The Argory', Apollo, vol. 147, April 1998, pp. 42-4).

Joosten, Joop.M., 'Framing Mondrian', unpublished paper given at the symposium, Modern Art in the Laboratory - Technical Examination and Art Historical Implications, held at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., USA, on 5 May 2001, and reviewed in Conservation News, No. 76, November 2001, p. 47 (the review describes Joosten's detailed exposition of Mondrian's framing processes throughout his career).

By country: Italy
See also Collections under Florence and Rome

Baker, Christopher, 'Filippo Lauri's Rape of Europa', Apollo, vol. 150, June 1999, pp. 19-24 (reproducing and discussing a fan of the early 1690s by Filippo Lauri and its flamboyant contemporary Roman frame of flowers and scrolling acanthus leaves).

Bustin, Mary, 'Recalling the Past: Evidence for the Original Construction of Madonna Enthroned with Saints and Angels by Agnolo Gaddi', Conservation Research 1996/1997, Studies in the History of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, vol. 57, 1997, pp. 35-60, 26 figures (on the construction of a Florentine triptych by Gaddi of c.1380-90, and the reconstruction of missing elements of the framing).

Callmann, Ellen, 'William Blundell Spence and the transformation of renaissance cassoni', Burlington Magazine, vol. 141, June 1999, pp. 338-48 (a pioneering study of a group of new or 'improved' renaissance-style chests or cassoni, made in Florence in the mid-19th century, but 'framing' genuine 15th-century Florentine cassoni paintings; an original chest in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, is contrasted with later examples in various museums and private collections; dealers including William Blundell Spence, Stefano Bardini and Elia Volpi employed Florentine furniture makers such as Antonio Ponziani and Luigi Frullini to make neo-renaissance furniture).

Cannon-Brookes, Peter, 'Picture Framing: A Framed Portrait from the Roman Empire', Museum Management and Curatorship, vol. 16, 1997, pp. 312-4 (reproducing and discussing the portrait of a woman [tempera on panel] in its original frame, c. AD 50-70, from Roman Egypt [hardly Italy, but there is nowhere else for this entry to go!]).

Cecchi, Alessandro, 'The conservation of Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo's altar-piece for the Cardinal of Portugal's chapel', Burlington Magazine, vol. 141, 1999, pp. 81-5, figs. 9, 13, 15 (reproducing the frame of this altarpiece in the Uffizi, attributed to Giuliano da Maiano and his brother Benedetto on the basis of style and of payments to the brothers for carpentry work in 1466-7).

Gittins, Estelle, The Development of Frame Design in Early Renaissance Venice c. 1460-1510, MA dissertation, St Andrews University, 1999, 66 pp. Plus bibliography, etc, 64 figures (examines the frames of this period in their social and historical context, with reference to developments in fine and applied arts, and through the influence of patronage, etc; considers workshop practices, changes in design, ornamentation and finish, and ends with an assessment of the Vendramin collection).

Penny, Nicholas, 'The Study and Imitation of Old Picture-Frames', Burlington Magazine, vol.140, 1998, pp. 375-82, and letter, vol.141, 1999, p. 354 (a thought-provoking and discursive article, chiefly devoted to the study of Italian renaissance and revival frames but touching more generally on recent literature on the history of framing).

Wardropper, Ian, 'A Silver Relief of the Crucifixion of St Peter by Luigi Valadier', The Sculpture Journal, vol. 4, 2000, pp. 79-84 (a study of Valadier's neo-classical metal frames for his sculptural reliefs).

Zuffi, Stefano, The Frame, Evolution and Design. From the Sixties to the Present with Arquati Models, Electa, Milan, 1996, 149 pp., text in English and Italian, numerous colour illustrations and sections (a rare example of a promotional publication tracing the history of a contemporary framemaking business, Arquati, from its foundation in 1960 by Franco Arquati in his hometown, Parma, to its present international position; an historical and scene-setting introduction is followed by a discussion of six frame types produced by Arquati; reference is also made to an earlier publication by Paolo Mastromo, Franco Arquati. Un Mondo in Cornice, 1992).


By country: Spain

Tiemblo, Maria Pia Timon, Coleccion Cano de P.E.A., El Marco Espanol en la Historia del Arte. The Spanish Frame in the History of Art, P.E.A., S.A., Madrid, n.d, 1998 or 1999, 109 pp., 85 colour illustrations, 46 frame sections (a useful well-illustrated survey of Spanish frames, published by the Madrid frame firm P.E.A. in Spanish with an English translation, and based on the collection of the Cano frame workshop, founded in 1907 and acquired by P.E.A. in 1994. The introduction reproduces eight frames made by the Cano workshops for the Prado museum including those on works by Raphael, Titian, Velazquez, Zurburan and Goya. A short section of illustrations reproducing decorative techniques is followed by corner details and sections of 46 frames in current production, ranging from mediaeval to 19th-century models.)

By country: United States of America
See also Photographs under Burns and Schneider

Adair, William B., 'The American Empire Frame', Picture Framing Magazine, vol. 10, August 1999, pp. 108-117, twenty illustrations, mostly in colour (fully illustrated account of the conservation and reproduction of a neo-classical frame made for the North Carolina state capitol building by Horton & Waller of Philadelphia in 1841 to house a lithograph, 'Canova's Statue of General George Washington').

Adair, William B., 'Max Kuehne Frames', Picture Framing Magazine, vol. 12, May 2001, pp. 56-62, 6 colour illustrations (a summary discussion of the life and work of Max Kuehne (1880-1968), a leading American craftsman framemaker).

Barry, Claire M., 'Swimming by Thomas Eakins: Its Construction, Condition, and Restoration', in Doreen Bolger and Sarah Cash (editors), Thomas Eakins and the Swimming Picture, exh. cat., Amon Carter Museum, Texas, 1996, pp. 111-2, 116, repr. in colour on cover (on the rediscovery of the artist's original gilt renaissance-revival frame, of a pattern found on one other work by Eakins of the 1880s).

Smith, Todd D. (ed.), American Art from the Dicke Collection, exhibition catalogue, Dayton Art Institute, Ohio, 1997, with essay by Eli Wilner, 'The Frame is the Soul of the Painting: Period Frames in the Dicke Collection' (a recent example of reframing in period frames).

Vazquez, Anne, three articles in Picture Framing Magazine, vol. 12: 'American frames: 1900-1950', March 2001, pp. 74-82, 10 figures; 'American frames: The 1950s', May 2001, pp. 28-32, 3 figures; 'American frames: The 1960s', July 2001, pp. 44-6, 3 figures (summary discussion of period styles with basic information on framemakers).

Wilner, Eli and Mervyn Kaufman, Antique American Frames. Identification and Price Guide, Avon Books, New York, 1995, 228 pp., 19 colour and numerous other illustrations (a popular paperback history and collectors guide, covering the period 1800-1939).

Wilner, Eli, (ed.), The Gilded Edge: The Art of the Frame, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2000, 203 pp., 151 illustrations mainly in colour, 17 line drawings (ten essays on various aspects of framing in America, including a section on aesthetics and history, a consideration of artist designed frames such as those by Whistler, Thomas Eakins, and Stanford White, and three essays on museum framing at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Detroit Institute of Arts).

Photographs, miniatures, pastels, prints and drawings

Baker, Christopher, 'The Prince, his tutor, and a rare portrait print: William Markham by James Heath', The British Art Journal, vol. 2, no. 3, 2001, pp. 36-8, 4 illustrations (on an early 19th-century engraving by Heath and its remarkable contemporary neo-classical trophy frame).

Bell, Nancy (ed.), Historic Framing and Presentation of Watercolours, Drawings and Prints (proceedings of conference held June 1996), Institute of Paper Conservation, Leigh, Worcester, 1997, 57 pp., 68 black and white illustrations (six essays including David Alexander on the framing of English prints in the 18th century, Thea Burns on the framing of European pastels in the early 18th century, and Helen Dorey on framing at the Soane Museum).

Burns, Stanley B., Forgotten Marriage: The Painted Tintype & The Decorative Frame 1860-1910, The Burns Press, New York, 1995, 220 pp., numerous illustrations (a fascinating survey of popular American photograph frames).

Hopkinson, Martin, 'The Lithographs of Whistler', Print Quarterly, vol. 16, 1999, pp. 87-8 (a review of the 1998 exhibition of Whistler lithographs at the Art Institute of Chicago, reproducing an impression of Yellow House, Lannion, in its original frame, designed by Whistler. All the lithographs were exhibited in frames based on this example).

McKechnie, Sue, British Silhouette Artists and their Work 1760-1860, 1978, pp. 34-40, 48-51 (omitted from the bibliography in The Art of Picture Frame; an excellent survey of frame styles used for silhouettes).

Mason, Pippa, 'The Framing and Display of Watercolours', Watercolours from Leeds City Art Gallery, exh. cat., Leeds City Art Gallery, 1995, pp. 28-38, 5 illustrations (an excellent short survey of historical practice in framing watercolours).

Romanelli, Marco et al., Intorno alla fotografia: 37 cornici per 37 fotografi, Paris, Association Jacqueline Vodoz et Bruno Danese, exh. cat., 1998, 103 pp., many illustrations (short introductory essays followed by 36 photographs and their frames, of an arty or conceptional nature, described as follows in the publication itself: 'Around photography presents a reflection on the relation between the image and frame, with twosomes linking photographers known for their original creativity to some of the most problematical contemporary designers. The result is a collection of unprecedented, one-off works. In it each photographic suggestion is reconsidered through the eyes of a designer and a "frame"'.

Schneider, Stuart, Collecting Picture and Photo Frames, Schiffer books, Atglen, PA, 176pp., 1998, fully illustrated in colour (popular American photograph, print and miniature frames from 1840 to 1940).

Simon, Jacob, 'The production, framing and care of English pastel portraits in the eighteenth century', The Paper Conservator, vol. 22, 1998, pp. 10-20, 7 illustations.

Technique and conservation

Battison, Clair, '"Natural Born Quillers" - conservation of paper quills on the Sarah Siddons plaque frame', V&A Conservation Journal, no. 27, April 1998, pp. 8-10.

Baya, Hubert, 'Gilding in the Dutch Golden Age', Painting Techniques. History, Materials and Studio Practice. Summaries of the Posters at the Dublin Congress, 7-11 September 1998, International Institute for Conservation, 1998, unpaginated (a one-page review of research into a distinctive gilding technique used on some Dutch frames in the second half of the 17th century).

English Heritage, Gilding: Approaches to Treatment. A joint conference of English Heritage and the United Kingdom Institute for Conservation, 27-28 September 2000, English Heritage, 2001, 84 pp., 66 illustrations (with essays by Louisa Davey on framing at the National Gallery, Sarah Staniforth on frame conservation in National Trust houses, and John Anderson on framing solutions at the Tate Gallery).

McClure, Ian, 'The Framing of Wooden Panels', in Kathleen Dardes and Andrea Rothe (eds.), The Structural Conservation of Panel Paintings, proceedings of a symposium at the J. Paul Getty Museum, 24-28 April 1995, The Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, 1998, pp. 433-47 (a profusely illustrated volume, well-organised but for the lack of an index, surveying the history of panel making in Europe and current and past conservation practices. McClure's is the key essay on the problems encountered in the framing of panels but there are useful contributions by other authors on pp. 129, 272 and 349 and by Wadum (see By country: Flemish in this bibliography).

Marsland-Boyer, Victoria and Adriano Lorenzelli, 'The Picture Frame in Context and the Art of Gilding' in Philippa Vaughan (ed.), The Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta: Conception, Collections, Conservation, Marg Publishing, Mumbai, India, 1997 (a study of the conservation of frames on British pictures at the Victoria Memorial Hall, reproducing seven frames dating from the mid-18th to the mid-19th century).

Powell, Christine, 'Some French and English Gilding Techniques: The making and gilding of an 18th century English-style mirror frame with tooled gesso work', SSCR Journal, The Quarterly News Magazine of the Scottish Society for Conservation and Restoration, vol. 9, no. 4, 1998, pp. 5-14 (a detailed study comparing modern French gilding techniques, as used in making a mirror frame, to Watin and other 17th and 18th-century publications on gilding).

Rose, Jenny, 'An Investigation into the Domestic Care of Paintings in English Country Houses in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries', in Christine Sitwell and Sarah Staniforth (eds.), Studies in the History of Paintings Restoration, 1998, pp.139-80 (with a section of references to care of picture frames in domestic and artistic manuals of the period).

Sawicki, Malgorzata, 'Picture Frame Conservation or Repairing?' AICCM (Inc) Bulletin, Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Materials (Inc), vol. 20, no. 2, 1995, pp. 17-25 (philosophical issues are discussed relating to three case studies: the conservation of the frame of Chaucer at the court of Edward III by Ford Madox Brown, exh. 1851, the restoration of the frame of Summertime by Rupert Bunny, exh. 1907, and the reproduction of a frame for Diogenes by John Waterhouse, 1882).


Individual collections

America: Daniel B. Schneider, 'The Frame-Up', ARTnews, vol. 99, February 2000, pp. 142-7, ten illustrations (a journalist surveys American museum attitudes to period framing of their collections, focusing on the Cone bequest of Matisses at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art at Washington, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Brooklyn Museum of Art).

Beningbrough Hall, Yorkshire: see A Guide to Picture Frames at Beningbrough Hall, Yorkshire

Cobbe Collection: Alec Cobbe, 'The framing and restoration of the Historic Cobbe Collection', in Alastair Laing (ed.), Clerics & Connoisseurs: The Rev. Matthew Pilkington, the Cobbe Family and the Fortunes of an Irish Art Collection through Three Centuries, English Heritage, 2001, pp. 74-9, 24 illustrations (from the book accompanying the exhibition at Kenwood House, London; a study of the framing of this 18th-century Irish collection, based on family account books, surviving labels, and comparison of the various frame of styles).

Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts: Nancy Rivard Shaw, ' Marriages, Divorces, and Reconciliations. Challenges in Framing a Museum Collection', in Eli Wilner, (ed.), The Gilded Edge: The Art of the Frame, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2000, pp. 178-93, 14 illustrations mainly in colour (a survey of the framing and re-framing of works in the American collection at the Detroit).

Florence, Palazzo Pitti: Marilena Mosco and Edit Revai (eds.), Cornici Barocche e Stampe. Restaurate dai Depositi di Palazzo Pitti, exh. cat., Palazzo Pitti, Florence, 1998, published by Sillabe s.r.l., Livorno, pp. 8-17, 24-47, 94-5 (ten fine 17th and early 18th-century Florentine frames are catalogued, with an introductory essay by Mosco, extracts from contemporary inventories (prepared by Jennifer Celani) and a bibliography; a welcome contribution to our understanding of Florentine auricular and baroque frames and the riches of the historic Palazzo Pitti collections).

Knole, Kent: see A Guide to Picture Frames at Knole, Kent

Leeds, Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall: Christopher Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, Leeds 1998, vol. 3, pp. 642-3, 726-7 (updating Gilbert's two-volume 1978 catalogue, notably reproducing a compo frame made by the London framemaker, Alexander Miller, for a printed speech of the Duke of York in c.1825).

London, National Gallery: Lorne Campbell, National Gallery Catalogues. The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish School, London, 1998, p. 29 (this excellent catalogue discusses and illustrates the frames on seven pictures which retain their original frames, two of which are integral, one partly integral and partly applied and four engaged; the catalogue also provides evidence, chiefly relating to colour, as to the appearance of the lost original frames of another ten pictures).

London, National Gallery: Louisa Davey, 'Framing at the National Gallery', in Gilding: Approaches to Treatment. A joint conference of English Heritage and the United Kingdom Institute for Conservation, 27-28 September 2000, English Heritage, 2001, pp. 47-52, 6 illustrations (framing policy at the National Gallery, including the refraining of works by Turner).

London, Soane Museum: Helen Dorey, 'The Historic Framing and Presentation of Watercolours, Drawings and Prints at Sir John Soane's Museum', in Nancy Bell (ed.), Historic Framing and Presentation of Watercolours, Drawings and Prints (proceedings of conference held June 1996), Institute of Paper Conservation, Leigh, Worcester, 1997, pp. 20-31, 21 black and white illustrations.

London, Tate Gallery: John Anderson, 'Dip and strip, not quite but almost', in Gilding: Approaches to Treatment. A joint conference of English Heritage and the United Kingdom Institute for Conservation, 27-28 September 2000, English Heritage, 2001, pp. 59-66, 6 illustrations (framing treatment at the Tate Gallery, focusing on four case studies).

Munich, Pfefferle collection: Christian Burchard,, 'Bilderrahmen, Sprache der Ornamente: Beispiele aus der Sammlung Pfefferle, München', Barockberichte: Informationsblätter des Salzburger Barockmuseums zur bildenden Kunst des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts, no. 24/25, 1999, pp. 397-412 (illustrating 27 frames in colour from the Pfefferle collection of French, Spanish, Italian, German and Dutch frames shown at the Salzburg Barockmuseum).

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art: Carrie Rebora Barratt, 'American Frames in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Choices and Changes', in Eli Wilner, (ed.), The Gilded Edge: The Art of the Frame, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2000, pp. 156-77, 18 illustrations mainly in colour (a report on the Metropolitan Museum's survey of frames in the American collection).

Rome, Corsini Collection: Maria Letizia Papini, L'ornamento della pittura. Cornici, arredo e disposizione della Collezione Corsini di Roma nel XVIII secolo, Nuova Argos Edizioni Srl, Rome, 1998, especially pp.101-120 (with a chapter on frames in the Corsini collection, an appendix of payments to framemakers from 1731 to 1780 and a section of plates in black-and-white reproducing 32 frames. This excellent survey of one of the major Roman collections, much of which is on public display in the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica in the Palazzo Corsini, documents the dominant use of Salvator Rosa frames (usually called Carlo Maratta frames by the British) in the 18th century, and the use of cassetta and more elaborate models in the 17th century. Documentation from inventories and from 18th-century framing bills is married to surviving frames where possible. Some pictures were acquired with their frames, as for example Carlo Maratta's oval Holy Family. The book also discusses the formation and the hanging of the collection).

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts: David Park Curry, ' What's in a Frame?', in Eli Wilner (ed.), The Gilded Edge: The Art of the Frame, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2000, pp. 134-55, 17 illustrations mainly in colour (a survey of attitudes to framing and of re-framing the American collection at the Virginia Museum

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