19th Century Antique French Neoclassical Style Drawing Picture Frame 15 x 12

William Morris is quoted as saying, “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” For me, this directly applies to the picture frame. The frame is at once both useful and beautiful. It holds, protects and enhances the art.

The picture frame and its design elements are also tied to architecture and furniture. Many of the ornamentation and decoration elements on frames are also found on the facades of buildings as well as on tables and chairs. It is for this reason, that frames were also considered as furniture.

There are many famous artists and architects who designed their own picture frames including Edgar Degas, James McNeill Whistler, John Marin, Charles Prendergast, Georgia O’Keeffe, Stanford White among others.

And since you’re still reading, I’d love to share a little about my love of picture frames. We will need to travel back over twenty years. It was 2002, I had moved to New York City with the dream of becoming an antique dealer. With a six month sublet and six hundred dollars, I set out into the City that Never Sleeps. It was here that I happened upon the world famous 26th Street flea market. Every weekend dealers brought their freshest finds and the buyers lined up with flash lights in hand to buy them. I had found my passion in antique and period picture frames. Soon thereafter I established myself as a serious dealer in fine picture frames and found my clients throughout the coveted Upper East Side and all along upper Madison Avenue. With a selection of frames on my shoulder and a swipe of my MetroCard I was transported from my studio apartment in the West Village to another world. A world of Picassos and Kandinskys, Cassatts and Sargents, Titians and Tintorettos… it was magical. I was hooked. Still am. And I hope you are too!