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Hardwood Record — Veneer & Panel Section 



January 25, 1918 



Picture Frames as Veneer Market 



Present Demand for Venered Work Light, but 

 Expansion Is Looked For 



HE picture frame industry is not usually looked 

 upon as an important market for veneered work, 

 and compared with big trades like furniture and 

 cabinet making, it is, of course, relatively unimportant. 

 But this does not alter the fact that there are hundreds of 

 plants making picture frames, supplying the thousands of 

 stores engaged in selling pictures, frames and art goods 

 generally, and that the value of their annual product is 

 'way up in the millions. 



Hence the veneer manufacturer, together with the man 

 who sells the glued-up work direct to the frame manufac- 

 turer, is interested in this business, which contributes ma- 

 terially to the volume of sales. TTie trade is one which 

 has its ups and downs, its peaks and valleys, perhaps to a 

 greater extent than most lines, the explanation for this 

 being that pictures and frames are things that the general 

 public can get along without much more readily than it 

 can get along without food and fuel, for example. 

 Hence, at the first sign of untoward conditions, demand 

 for frames falls off, and with it goes the demand for 

 veneered work. 



Inasmuch as furnishing homes involves use of pictures 

 as well as furniture, it might be supposed that the frame 

 business would move along parallel lines with the furni- 

 ture industry. This is true to a limited extent, but it ap- 

 pears that the frame business is much more responsive to 

 the ebb and flow^ of demand than the furniture business. 

 One reason for this is that it takes a lot longer to make 

 furniture than frames, and hence furniture dealers have 

 to look further ahead in buying than the picture and art 

 trade. The result of this is that it takes longer for un- 

 favorable general conditions to make themselves evident 

 in the furniture business than in the manufacture of 

 frames. 



In fact, this trade is so sensitive that it occurs to the 

 writer that it might be watched as the barometer of busi- 

 ness instead of pig iron and other time-honored products, 

 which have been relied upon heretofore. Now that the 

 war, by introducing price-fixing by the Government, has 

 interfered with the customary use of these accepted 

 barometers, the frame trade ought to be considered as 

 reflecting the way things are going generally. 



The frame business parallels the furniture trade in 

 another way: it responds to style influences furnished by 

 the makers and buyers of furniture. Wood frames must 

 harmonize with the material of which the furniture of the 

 room is made. At least an effort is made to bring this 

 about, and that explains why mahoganized materials are 

 popular in the frame trade today. Comparatively little 

 real mahogany is used, the frame makers apparently fear- 

 ing that costs would be too great, though in the opinion 



of the writer, this idea is considerably exaggerated. At 

 any rate, birch is the favored material for mahoganizing 

 purposes, and is consumed by the frame manufacturers in 

 larger quantity than any other wood. 



Though walnut has been popular in the furniture busi- 

 ness for several years, it has not yet forced its way into 

 the frame business, possibly because the walnut veneer 

 and lumber people have been too busy with other and 

 larger business to make a special effort to encourage the 

 use of this material by picture frame manufacturers. It 

 would seem that the time is ripe for its introduction, since, 

 as suggested, frame makers are always interested in put- 

 ting their own designs in alignment with conditions in the 

 furniture field, which is depended upon to furnish sug- 

 gestions for such changes. 



The frame manufacturer does not buy his veneers and 

 do his own gluing up, but purchases three-ply stuff in 

 quantity from the concerns handling this work. The face 

 is, of course, the only piece which must be of clear ma- 

 terial, as it must be finished and made to furnish an attrac- 

 tive setting for the picture which it is to contain. The 

 manufacture of frames without w^aste is a problem of the 

 business, while finishing the edges of the veneered frame 

 so that the glue-joints v^rill not show is another feature 

 w^hich gives the practical men in the industry something 

 to think about during their idle moments. 



As a matter of fact, the demand for veneered frames, 

 and hence for glued-up stock for use in making them, is 

 less just now^ than for some time. The trade has not been 

 calling for this material with any degree of eagerness, and 

 while some veneered frames continue to be made, the 

 situation is not regarded as anything like normal. How^- 

 ever, there is no telling when it will be restored to normal 

 figures. The whole frame industry is in the dumps just 

 at present, and perhaps when the business picks up and 

 business of the usual volume is restored, veneered frames 

 will again be a featured line, and the veneering business 

 will get the benefit of the change. 



"I believe in the future of the veneered frame business," 

 declared a New York sales agent, who handles the prod- 

 ucts of six large Chicago frame factories in the metropoli- 

 tan district. "I like veneered frames, because the ad- 

 vantages of veneering are nowhere more evident than in 

 this line. TTiat is, it is possible, by means of carefully 

 selected face veneers, to get effects which would be im- 

 possible in any other v^ray. Consequently there is real 

 basis for the popularity which veneered frames have en- 

 joyed heretofore, and which doubtless will come back to 

 them again in the not distant future. 



"The real trouble just now is that the picture frame 

 business as a whole is off. Dealers are not buying, and 



