bourne frames exhibition catalogue 2013.pdf

8/14/2019 Bourne Frames Exhibition Catalogue 2013.pdf

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Sixteen Frames

B O U R N E F R A M E S

The frame

in Europe over

years


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Bourne Frames & Conservation

When it is not possible to find a suitable period frame, we

can supply a reproduction; based on research and experi-

ence and, where possible, copied from original examples,

we design and run mouldings from which we make frames

from all periods. Ornamented frames can be carved or

made in traditional compo. Our work is to be found in

public and private collections in the and overseas.

For twentieth and twenty-first century paintings, we

can make hand-finished contemporary frames. Each is

made specifically for the painting in question; profiles and

finishes can be chosen from our range of samples in any

combination, adapted from similar examples or created for

the project.

: , , ,

Bourne Frames offers a complete conservation service

from housekeeping advice through conservation treat-ments to full-scale reconstructions of damaged frames.

Our conservators will undertake with confidence the most

complex and challenging tasks and will work with other

specialists on multi-disciplinary projects. In addition to

frames, we gild sculpture, artefacts, furniture and objects

in a variety of materials. We adhere to the principle of

minimum intervention and always recommend the con-

servative route as a starting point, for all objects.

Bourne Frames provides conservation mounting and

framing, using museum-quality materials and practice.

We carry out assessments and surveys of individual

items and complete collections, in the studio or on site,

for all requirements, including: conservation, remedial

treatment, loan, exhibition, valuation, purchase,

insurance, good housekeeping and hanging.

, ,

We provide a full hanging service, including advice on

placing for hang, and a packing, crating and transport

service for paintings, frames and objects within the

and overseas.

Bourne Frames & Conservation was established in

to provide frames for those passionate about Scottish art.

In Bourne Frames and its sister company, BourneFine Art, merged with the Fi ne Art Society, one of the

worlds oldest art dealerships.

During thirty years of collecting and selling, we have

gathered a significant stock of fine antique British

and European frames dating from the sixteenth to the

twentieth centuries, for paintings, drawings and prints.

Our collection is thoroughly researched and continually

replenished, designed to serve a wide range of clients:

museums and galleries, dealers, auctioneers, collectors

and members of the general public.

We specialise in identifying and sourcing an

appropriate frame for each painting, taking into account

historical period, style and aesthetic; ideally, we aim to

find a frame which corresponds closely to what would

have been the original but, in any case, one which

complements the painting to its best advantage.

With this selling exhibition, we hope to share our

enthusiasm for the intrinsic beauty of frames as artefacts,

for the skill of the craftsmen who made them and for

their value in contributing to the appreciation and impact

of the paintings they present.

Makers label from the Ramsay frame. See p.


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Ramsay

Allan Ramsay (), one of Britains leading

eighteenth-century portraitists, was born in Edinburgh.

He settled in London and maintained a studio in each

city. Jacob Simon has identified Ramsays adoption of the

frame style seen here, as his own: Ramsays frame has

elongated curves which meet in the centres in the French

manner. These centres are tight and heighten the effect of

the swept sides; a small boss is set on a leaf immediately

between the tips of the scrolled sweeps. The distinctively-

shaped plain panels which ornament the sides are also

French in origin and create a very different effect from the

trailing flowers so often favoured by English carvers; these

panels are bordered by grooves worked in the gesso for

maximum effect and minimum cost.

The corners of the frames are often decorated with

shells or rosettes, for example Margaret Ramsay, the

artists second wife, c., Scottish National Portrait

Gallery, Edinburgh. Jacob Simon has also been able to

determine the original gilding pattern as seen on the

portrait of Charles,Viscount Mahon, afterwards 3rd Earl

Stanhope, , Chevening, Kent the panels are matte

oil-gilt framed by burnished water-gilt borders and the

matte corners with burnished C-scrolls.

Ramsay had painted the Prince of Wales in

and this led to his appointment as one of His Majestys

Principal Painters in Ordinary in . Full length

portraits of King George and Queen Charlotte in

their coronation robes were produced for the offices of

Ambassadors and Governors of Provinces, many of them

in opulent carved frames attributed to the Huguenot

carver and gilder Ren Stone. A pair of these portraits with

frames showing roses and thistles as national emblems

can be seen in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery,

Edinburgh.

Our frame bears the label of John Hay, a frame maker

who established his business in Aberdeen in . He

was awarded a Royal appointment as carver and gilder to

Queen Victoria in and, through his sons, the business

traded for more than a century. This frame dates from

the early nineteenth century and is made in composition,

known as compo, a mixture of glue and chalk used f or

moulded ornament. It is a version of the carved Ramsay

frame and reflects a preference for this frame style for

Scottish portraits.

Scottish, first half nineteenth century, compo gilt swept and pierced

Ramsay frame

Sight size: x inches (x .cm)

Profile width: inches (.cm)


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Pre-Raphaelite Reed-and-Roundel

This frame was designed by Ford Madox Brown ()

and Dante Gabriel Rossetti () in the early s

and is primarily associated with the Pre-Raphaelite

movement.

Brown had visited Italy in and returned with inno-

vative ideas about frame design. Both he and Rossetti, who

became his pupil in , travelled in northern Europe

where they saw Flemish frames which would have been

strikingly different to the frames seen in Britain.

Their shared interest in medieval and early renaissance

frame styles, the materials used and the methods of con-

struction, led to frame designs which must have seemed

shocking to the public.They considered the conventional

compo frames seen in the galleries and favoured by other

artists of the time to be i nappropriate for their paintings.

Brown, in a letter to his patron James Leathart, referred to

such frames as the debased article now in use. The Pre-

Raphaelites chose to design frames which reflected their

approach a philosophical rejection of the established

order of the art world. They needed frame makers with the

abilities and aptitude to work with them, and found t hese

in Joseph Green and Foord & Dickinson.

Their frames were constructed with butt, rather than

mitred, joints which took inspiration from medieval plank

frames, whilst rejecting the diagonal mitre which had been

introduced during the Renaissance. They often used oak,

a timber with medieval connotations, and applied gold leaf

directly onto the wood so that the grain gave an interesting

play of light.

The influence of their designs was far reaching and

the reed-and-roundel style was taken up by many artists of

the time. Gilding directly onto the wood was used to great

decorative effect by the Arts and Crafts Movement and

the reeded frame reached its apotheosis with James Abbott

McNeill Whistler.

English, nineteenth century, reed-and-roundel frame, gilded oak with

appliedpaterae

Sight size: x inches (.x .cm)



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Catalogue Bourne Frames

All rights reserved

Photography by Jo Hanley

Designed and typeset in Fairfield by Dalrymple

Printed in Scotland by Arc

Front cover, lower left: Sansovino frame, see p.

Front cover, upper right: English, mid eighteenth century

carved, pierced, giltwood rocaille swept frameSight size: x inches (.x.cm)


Back cover, upper left: Ramsay frame, see p.

Back cover, lower right: Sansovino frame, see p.

Title page roundels, left to right: British, mid nineteenth

century, gilt compo, Rococo Revival frame; British, late

nineteenth century,gilt compo, Neoclassical Revival

fluted hollowframe; Italian, eighteenth century, giltwood

cassetta frame.

B I B L I O G R A P H Y

Simon, Jacob, The Art of the Picture Frame: Artists,

Patrons and the Framing of Portraits in Britain,

Simon, Jacob, The Burlington Magazine, July ,

Vol., No.pp.

Mitchell, Paul and Roberts, Lynn,Frameworks: Form,

Function & Ornament in European Portrait Frames,

Mitchell, Paul and Roberts, Lynn,A History of European

Picture Frames, .

National Portrait Gallery, London, Directory of frame

makers , and various articles. http://www.npg.

org.uk/research/programmes/the-art-of-the-picture-

frame.php

De Lszl Archive Trust, catalogue raisonn including

information and images of his frames. http://www.delaszloarchivetrust.com/index.php

Published by Bourne Frames & Conservation Ltd

for the exhibition held at Dundas Street,

Edinburgh, from November

Bourne Frames & Conservation Ltd

Dundas Street

Edinburgh

+()

[email protected]

www.bournefineart.com


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B O U R N E F R A M E S

bourne frames exhibition catalogue 2013.pdf

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