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Gina M's Antique Art Garden Guide
Here is a very simple guide to a few of the styles of antique and vintage frames available for your old artwork. I sell antique and vintage paintings and prints online, and I also sell antique frames. I will show a few examples of antique and vintage frames for you here , I will be unable to show all the varieties, but at least I will show a few of the more popular styles.
All of these are antique and vintage ORIGINAL frames, NO REPRODUCTION frames here.
Let's start with probably the most popular style frame I sell which is the late 1800's VICTORIAN frame.
Very thick, heavy ORNATE GESSO & wide MOLDING Frame Late 1800's
The frames with the WIDEST molding, more ORNATE are more VALUABLE than Thinner ones, this one is over 7 ins. wide
Simpler mid to late 1800's EASTLAKE Walnut thick frame with GLASS
Again a very WIDE, multi-layered Molding on this frame, gives presence to your artwork
These are very nice for old engravings and prints as well
Let's start with probably the most popular style frame I sell which is the late 1800's VICTORIAN frame.
Very thick, heavy ORNATE GESSO & wide MOLDING Frame Late 1800's
The frames with the WIDEST molding, more ORNATE are more VALUABLE than Thinner ones, this one is over 7 ins. wide
Simpler mid to late 1800's EASTLAKE Walnut thick frame with GLASS
Again a very WIDE, multi-layered Molding on this frame, gives presence to your artwork
These are very nice for old engravings and prints as well
The wider and thicker moldings , plus elaborate gesso ( the plaster decorative accents on the frame), give your artwork depth and add value to your art. Alot of the time, the very old authentic frames have chips off the gesso, typically the corners, but also anywhere on them. I usually still buy them unless an entire bottom half of gesso is gone or it has a beautiful painting inside and then the frame is less important as the art inside. Another little trick people like to do to help salvage a frame is paint the wood that is exposed,after the gesso fell off, and paint it a gold color to match the rest of the frame. It really can be a ' eye-fooler' as most people simply look at the Art and the frame is secondary. You can also get a professional restorer to restore the gesso, it can be pricey but if you are a perfectionist, that may be the route for you. I am not a perfectionist about my old frames , so I do not mind some chips off the gesso. I believe it adds charm and patina to my antique paintings.
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Carved Walnut and a FAUX Wood-grain finish inner molding with GILT accents , I like these frames for prints and landscape paintings, late 1800's
Example of broken GESSO off Victorian frame, painted over with gold paint , late 1800's
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Art Deco Carved Wood frame, No elaborate gesso, Cleaner lines, circa 1930's
Most old Art Deco frames have straight lines, angular accents, and oftentimes poly-chromed blue, green or gold accent paint.
It is easy and fun to mix and match antique frames, these are two different style of late 1800's gesso frames, but they blend nicely together as most Victorian frames can do. This is a much better look than matching new frames, especially for antique artwork.
I will write another guide with more detail about Art Deco and Retro frames as Ebay only let's us use 10 pictures per guide. Please vote for this guide if it was in ANY way helpful to you and thanks so very much for taking the time to read it.
Good luck hunting for old frames !
Gina
Guide created: 06/10/09 (updated 09/23/09)
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