The Framers Forum

Hello! Would anyone possibly recognise this frame I’ve been asked to match from this photograph. It’s been painted a very dark brown, and I think it’s 3-4 cms wide.
I’ve had a look at my usual suppliers, Lion, Wessex, Larson Juhl and Rose & Hollis and can’t see anything..
Thanks so much in advance
Candida

It looks hand finished, probably a lot easier to identify when you have it in front of you. My guess would be its a number of stacked mouldings?

Definitely a hand-finished frame. I would say stacked combination to.

I recognise various parts but hard to tell without pulling it to pieces.

That's a hand finished, stacked moulding frame and I don't think there is much doubt about it. The individual mouldings are most likely to all be Obeche mouldings. There's nothing all that uncommon about the individual mouldings, so you might not find that they are rxclusive to one particular supplier. A reasonable starting point could be the Rose and Hollis bare wood mouldings catalogue.

Thank you for the help. I’m thinking of turning it down as I’ve got to do the match only from the photo. I thought it was black but in fact it’s dark brown, and I’ve now found out the frame was made in New York, So I can’t even see it. It’s a discerning client so I may just say sorry can’t, which I prefer than them being disappointed with the result (match). It’s one part of a job of many other (simpler) frames I’m doing for him.

It's nigh-on impossible to perfectly match hand-finished frames, especially if you haven't got the frame to be matched in front
of you. It's like trying to copy someone's handwriting. Colour matching from photos is a big no-no. You could probably knock up
something that is 90%, but not a perfect replica. If someone brought me a hf frame that I had done I would be hard-pressed
to make a perfect clone. This is a good thing in many ways but not all.

Thanks Prospero, good to hear.

Is it ever going to hang with the other frame? If not, it could be still workable. There colour looks like burnt umber. Getting a perfect match without access to the original, is not going to be something that you can guarantee, but with a copy of the photo and taking measurements using the photo and the overall known width of the moulding might be possible to chose the right mouldings to make this from much the same size mouldings.

I must admit this would certainly appeal to me as a challenge that I would enjoy, but then I don't always do somethings for the most sensible reasons.