72 
House & Garden 
BlRONZE 
TMLETSjlONOR ROILSjMIEMOIRLVLS 
MiRIiERS AND iNSIGNLi 
We have exceptional 
facilities for making 
bronze tablets and 
memorials according 
to customers’ specifi¬ 
cations. Our bronzes 
include all styles from 
the simplest to the 
most elaborately 
modeled. 
Illustrations submit¬ 
ted upon request. If 
you specify approx¬ 
imate size desired, 
number of names, and 
whether ornamenta¬ 
tion is to be plain, 
moderate or elabo¬ 
rate, full size designs 
will be furnished. 
Rjee© ^ Barton 
* ESTABLISHED 10 2*1 
THEO]D)qRE]liSTJRR,lN€o 
Silversmiths '“'"Bronze Founders 
FjFTM AVENUiE ACT 47= STREET “ 4I^1LM!D>EN LaNE 
KewToKK ClTA" 
PEARLS, DIAMONDS, JEWELRY, WATCHES.'STATIONERY. 
Period Styles in Picture Frames 
{Continued jroni page 70) 
of walnut or else painted and gilt. 
Still another typical Baroque frame 
had for its main member, a convex ovolo 
molding, whose high projection threw 
the picture somewhat forward from the 
wall. It might or might not have a 
shaped top or a semi-circular cresting. 
Other frames, again, displayed a bold 
bolection molding as the chief feature, 
the highest projection of the molding 
being sometimes nearest the picture. 
Such frames occurred both in the nat¬ 
ural wood and also mere painted or 
painted and parcel gilt. A variant from 
this type was the gilt frame of bolection 
profile but covered with low-relief foli¬ 
ated carving. The practice of raising 
the plane of the picture and thus set¬ 
ting it slightly forward from the wall 
was a Baroque habit. Besides the types 
of frames enumerated, there were some 
frames whose contour consisted of a 
combination of interrupted curves. 
(2) Fixed architectural Baroque 
frames exhibited as great variety as 
the contemporary movable frames and 
occurred in positions similar to the cor¬ 
responding Renaissance types. In France 
and Italy especially, stucco frames for 
large wall spaces displayed the same 
bold rotund projections seen in so many 
of the movable frames. Bands or ropes 
of fruits, flowers and pulpy imbricated 
foliage enclosed the picture panels, as 
exemplified in the Salon Louis Treize 
at Fontainebleau; and sometimes there 
was also an accompaniment of heavy 
pediments, cartouches and scrolls. For 
chimney-pieces and overdoors, the car¬ 
touche with attendant heavy scrolls, 
figured large. There were likewise vig¬ 
orous bolection moldings with shaped 
panel heads, as in the chimney-piece 
of the Hall of Hercules at Versailles. 
In England, wood was used almost 
altogether, and the chimney-piece and 
overdoor frames in the manner of Grin¬ 
ling Gibbons and his school are too well 
known to need further comment. Here 
was the prevalence of the same rotund 
molding projections and the sturdy 
architectural details that entered into 
chimney-piece frame compositions and 
continued through the early Georgian era. 
The Rococo Period 
Rococo. (1) The Rococo episode 
gave rise to numerous movable frame 
forms in Italy, France and Spain, but 
the caprices of style were so varied that 
it is impossible to point out character¬ 
istic types. Furthermore, the reigning 
style of decoration discounted pictures, 
as such, and treated them mainly as 
mere decoration; consequently they 
were commonly empaneled. The char¬ 
acteristics most differentiating the mov¬ 
able Rococo frames from those of the 
Baroque period were the elimination of 
rotund molding projections along with 
other robust dimensions and the fre¬ 
quent redundancy of decorative details, 
usually in gilt. In England the Rococo 
influence was never preponderant and 
the only notable products in this vein 
were Chippendale’s mirror frames. 
(2) The fixed architectural frames 
for wall spaces, overdoors and chimney- 
pieces coincided with the paneling mo¬ 
tifs in shape, and the moldings and other 
decorative details were wholly subordi¬ 
nated to the exigencies of the individual 
scheme, with its customary lightness 
and flattening of projection. 
Neo-Classic. (1) In contrast to the 
robust convexity and the insistent ro¬ 
tundity everywhere prevalent under the 
Baroque influence, the movable frames 
of the Neo-Classic period displayed a 
marked tendency towards concavity or 
towards flatness, towards great refine¬ 
ment of proportion, and towards ele¬ 
gant delicacy of detail. Wood in its 
natural colors was no longer in favor 
and frames were, for the most part, 
gilt, although some were painted with 
perhaps a gilt fillet next the picture. 
An influence of the Rococo period re¬ 
mained in the generally light frames. 
There were oval, round or octagonal 
gilt frames with a concave cyma mold¬ 
ing, the outer arris being the highest 
projection; or rectangular frames with 
round or oval openings. Also gilt Flor¬ 
entine frames still retained their pierced 
foliage carving, but were lighter in 
structure than those of earlier date. 
Gilt frames of low-profiled moldings 
sometimes had shallow horizontal flut- 
ings, and at the top and upper corners, 
pendent bell-flower swags and drops, 
an urn, or knotted ribbons. There were 
frames with a shallow gilt cyma mold¬ 
ing and the edge of the glass over the 
print painted black with a narrow gilt 
line; plain, or nearly plain, flat frames,, 
and black frames with a shallow cyma 
mold and a narrow gilt molding next 
the picture; and, besides these, sundry 
kindred types, all distinguished, how¬ 
ever, by restraint for it was not until 
the Empire style was fully launched 
that ponderous and insistent contours 
again came into evidence. 
Fixed Frames 
(2) The fixed architectural frames 
had as much or more diversity of in¬ 
terpretation. There were oval or cir¬ 
cular shapes, embellished with delicate 
leafage or floral sprays, and confined 
within rectangular spaces; oval or round 
frames of imbricated laurel, looped up 
by ribbons; fluted octagons supported 
by griffins and surmounted by urns and 
pendent bell-flowers; empaneled rect¬ 
angular boundaries of beaded molding; 
chimney-piece structures, with a ground 
of carved wood or compo wrought with 
low-relief arabesques or bell-flower 
pendents and other Neo-Classic “prop¬ 
erties" to enclose a circular, oval or 
rectangular picture; and many similar 
conceits. 
Unless we deduce from the foregoing 
survey of frame development some con¬ 
crete lessons directly applicable to our 
own present requirements, we shall have 
spent our time for nothing more than 
mere archaeological diversion. We have, 
to be sure, seen that frames, both mov¬ 
able and fixed, kept even pace in stylis¬ 
tic evolution with contemporary deco¬ 
rative trend. But there is something 
more than that. 
We should fully realize that in deal¬ 
ing with frames in relation to their en¬ 
vironment the four cardinal factors to 
be taken into account are 
(1) the shape of the frame; 
(2) the profile of moldings and frame 
projection, which determine scale; 
(3) material and color; and 
(4) the decorative motifs. 
Harmony Essential 
We should see, also, that to ensure 
success in frame selection we must have 
congruity of scale and line. In other 
words, it is necessary to have harmony 
—either harmony by analogy or har¬ 
mony by contrast (to borrow terms 
from color phraseology)—and to avoid 
conflict. To illustrate, if the woodwork 
of a room is characterized by bold, 
convex Baroque contours and moldings 
of rotund profile, and if the furniture 
of that room displays the swelling curves 
and substantial proportions of the cor¬ 
responding Queen Anne style, Neo- 
Classic frames of low projection, light 
structure and minute detail will be 
manifestly out of place. Their pres¬ 
ence would create conflict of both scale 
and line. They have practically noth¬ 
ing in common to create a bond. From 
this cue other cases will readily suggest 
themselves to show what improprieties 
to avoid, without being slaves to period 
purism, and also what large liberties 
of adaptation may legitimately and ap¬ 
propriately be used. 
