RARE CARVED
AND PAINTED FRAME   

Centre County, Pennsylvania, ca. 1840.

Likely poplar, with original patinated, dry, very crackled painted and varnished surface with a hue of salmon trending toward bittersweet. Remarkable carving! The corner pinwheels stand so tall from the surface that they remind one of frosting on a cupcake. Each individual "herring-bone-like" channel is skillfully and carefully carved. Lapped-corner joints secured from behind by wooden pins.

Outside dimensions about 18 inches x 14 1/2. The view dimensions about 13 1/8 x 9 3/4. The inside rabbet (the maximum piece of art that it could take) is about 14 inches x 10 3/8. About 5/8 inches thick, and a full 1 1/2 inches thick at the corners including the pinwheel carvings. Excellent.

Stand-alone as a work of art, to present a top-shelf painting about the size of a Prior-Hamblin School portrait or fraktur, or could be fitted with period mirror glass. Only the second example of this frame that I have ever seen.