Antique American Frames: Identification and Price Guide

by Eli Wilner, Various, Mervyn Kaufman

Book Overview

Whether they are elaborately gilded or clean and classic, picture frames are often viewed as works of art. Now there's a fascinating, informative guide to collecting and restoring antique American... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0380770113
• ISBN13: 9780380770113
• Release Date: July 1995
• Publisher: Avon Books
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 5.5" x 0.8"

Customer Reviews

A Must Buy!!

What an amazing story of the way period frames came into their own. This book is the perfect way to start an understanding of the value of frames or to enhance your knowledge tremendously. This is a must have for anyone interested in the art of framing!

The Frame Bible

This is the best way to begin or refine your understanding of antique American frames.

Saving Things of Beauty

It struck me as odd that people were tossing these things of craftsmanship and age simply because they didn't think they could profit in a monetary sense. It was the death and destruction of antique frames that has made them rare. So many died, so so many could live. I am sure marketing was the key factor in showing the buyer with the bucks the joy and appreciation of the vintage frames beauty. And so to Mr. Eli Wilner belong the spoils. I found the book enlightening and enriching. Dealers who trade in these wares should buy numerous copies and send them out to their customers for the holidays.

A must-have if you appreciate American craftsmenship

I purchased a copy of the first edition of Antique American Frames a few years ago because of a keen interest I have in American painting and antiques. The book totally transformed my perspective on frames, and now when I am shopping for antiques or considering the purchase of a painting, I take notice of the frame. Using the knowledge gleaned from this book, I fancy myself a budding frame aficionado. I was expressing my newfound passion to my cousin and ended up giving her my copy. I often take the book with me to the store or gallery I am visiting, so I immediately orderd a replacement copy for myself. I was delighted to find that there is a currently a second edition of the price guide available, complete with the latest prices. The 2nd edition also contains a wonderful chapter on collectors, both collectors of paintings in antique frames, and, just the frames themselves. I was particularly struck by the analogy of the period frame to vase; when you think about it, vases are valued the world over just by themselves and exhibited empty. You never think about something being missing. I highly recommend the 2nd edition of Antique American Frames Identification and Price Guide as a must-have for anyone who appreciates the power and beauty of American craftsmanship and artistry. Like the final sentence in the new chapter says "at last period frames have come into their own."

A new passion for the art lover

I have been interested in American art for the last several years, and I found this book by accident while browsing on line, and was blown away. For me (and for very many other people, I suspect) this book made me rethink my assumptions about American art. Wilner tosses off a story early in the book that makes a point that, embarrassingly, I had never considered before: Michelangelo's great painting "The Holy Family" is surrounded by a wonderful round frame. The image is quite familiar to us miserable unfortunates who have never had the honor of seeing it in person at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence from art history classes or in books; but (until the color photograph in this book) I had never seen it in it's frame. Wilner asks: why is it that in books we see only the painting, but when we see the actual painting hanging on the wall in Florence, it is inside a frame? The author asserts that the proper marriage of frame and painting is a special experience, working in unison to illuminate the painting and enhancing the artistic impression. In fact, Wilner says that he views frames as sculpture, "as a handcrafted object that can exist independently of a picture." Before reading this book if I had come across someone purporting this frame-as-sculpture argument I would have been, at best, skeptical. However, since reading this book, I think that I've come around to see it Mr. Wilner's way. His love of period frames is evident in every page of this book, and his energy for the subject soon becomes contagious. After reading Antique American Frames I have found myself becoming very conscious of frames, delighting in well framed paintings, horrified by mismatches. It is remarkable what a frame can do. I find myself constantly evaluating frame and painting combinations, and I am thrilled to realize the enhancement a great frame can make on a great painting. I'll never look at American art in the same way. This book is structured as a price guide, detailing American frame styles from the beginning of the Nineteenth Century up until 1939 into several periods: 1800-1829, "The Federal Style," which was a neo-classical period, simpler than European neoclassism; 1830-1849 "European Inspiration," when frames were flamboyant and reflected the natural themes of the rococo revival; 1850-1859, "Nature Triumphant," which was again influenced by nature, and American expansion West ward and the spirit of adventure which prevailed. During the period of 1860-1869, "Neoclassicism in Bloom," the formal, restrained style belied the chaos of the Civil War era; "The Emerging American Renaissance" 1870-1879, was a period where frames became "more linear, more subdued and constrained-in effect, more elegant." (p.70), matched to the work of the prominent painters of the time, such as Charles Eastlake and Martin Johnson Heade. 1880-1889, "Era of Opulence" we are told was an era where both "architecture and design tend