This is the only labelled frame by this maker in the collection. The frame is an example of the possible variations on the classical revival style. The address on the label appears to date the frame some fifteen years after the work was acquired. An inscription in pen and ink on the reverse of the lower back edge reads: This Frame Made For W. A. C. a’ Beckett For The picture to The WORKHOUSE By Mrs. Emma Minnie Boyd, leaving little doubt the painting was framed prior to acquisition. This anomaly between dating frame makers’ addresses from business directories and the other evidence related to the work is not un-common.
Note
1 Hilary Maddocks, ‘Picture Framemakers in Melbourne c. 1860–1930’ in vol. 1, Frames, Melbourne Journal of Technical Studies in Art, University of Melbourne Conservation Service, 1999.
Made up from composition ornaments on a wood chassis, the torus of the frame is laurel and berry banded at the centres and corners. There is a burnished gilded taenia at the sight edge. The slip is water gilded.
The frame has been over-painted with gold coloured paint from the sloping inner edge through to the working edge.