As with paintings, the reverse of a frame offers a rich insight into its origin and age. The reverse can reveal far more than the work itself, from old, torn and worn gallery labels tantalisingly suggesting provenance that is yet to be established, to the indistinct inventory chalk marks from past auction houses. The canvas and construction of the stretcher, and artists suppliers stamps all go on to reveal the hidden history and production of the work. This all helps towards providing us with the evidence to establish the work’s authenticity.

Those familiar with joinery will marvel at the construction of frame joints, which can only be revealed by inspecting the back of a frame. From the raw sawn simple lap joints of a 16th century cassetta frame, to the French mitre jointed frames, secured with a spline – see Lot 54 in our catalogue, A Monumental French 17th Century style transitional Louis XIV gilded composition frame, where the spline is shown in the last photograph. Many of the Flemish and Dutch frames also display an array of lap halved joints, mitred half joints and open mortise and tenon joints to name but a few

_{DR ALBERT GODETZKY}

_{^{HEAD OF OLD MASTER PAINTINGS AND WORKS ON PAPER,}}

Historical accuracy can be complex but shouldn’t be restrictive. Throughout history, frames on paintings were replaced for various reasons, but, more often than not, these were aesthetically driven choices. Some frames of the Italian Baroque, for example, feature designs which harmonised more with the palatial surroundings of seventeenth-century collectors than with the paintings themselves. In later periods, however, particularly in museums, frames were simplified and ‘standardised’ across an entire collection with the ostensible aim of focusing attention on the paintings themselves and not on the frame. The French Impressionists, to take another example, favoured more weathered, ornamental frames from a century earlier. Such extremes in the approach to framing are testament to the diversity of taste as well as the subjective nature of which frame is deemed appropriate to which picture. In selecting a frame it is therefore important to consider not only historical accuracy, but a balance of other factors such as the painting’s tones, compositional complexity and scale, as well as the aesthetics of a given space.