STANFORD WHITE (1853–1906)
“Stanford White was a champion frame designer. For adaptation of classical elements into new works of art, White’s frames remain unsurpassed. He embraced, experimented, and transformed traditional patterns. Architectonic tabernacle styles, frames with pierced foliate and arabesque patterns, basket weaves, fish-scales, twining leaves, and fence-like grilles with different tonalities of gold and metal leaf were specifically created to harmonize with each individual painting.” — fig. 5, p 143, excerpt from “American Period Frame Connoisseurship in the Twenty-first Century,” extensive chapter written by Tracy Gill and Simeon Lagodich, contributing authors, American Art Collecting and Connoisseurship, Merrell Publishers Limited, London and New York, Sept 2020.
Gill & Lagodich currently have over a dozen original period Stanford White frames in their collection and inventory. Most are available for sale or as custom-made replicas in different sizes.
Please check back soon for additional images and historical information.
GL-1943 STANFORD WHITE frame
GL-7238 STANFORD WHITE attached grille frame
PERIOD FRAME c. 1895-1905 American Stanford White painting frame; gilded composition ornament over wood; attached grille design, tightly overlapping leaf and berry top edge, running pearls, reverse ogee profile with attached grille ornament. Sight size: 17-11/16” x 23-3/4 Molding width: 6-5/8”
GL-8021 Stanford White design, Newcomb-Macklin Company, New York makers
PERIOD FRAME c. 1915 American painting frame, (earlier Stanford White design), Newcomb-Macklin, New York makers, gold leaf, gray bole, gesso, on cast ornament on wood. Flat panel profile with alternating rows of applied ornament. This example has good original gilding. Sight size 20-1/2” x 26-1/2” Molding width 3-3/4” Note: Stanford White’s original design of this frame model, circa 1880, was fabricated of hand-carved wood by Joseph Cabus, New York.
“During his lifetime, Stanford White closely guarded permissions for fabrication of his frame designs. Following his untimely death in 1906, the Newcomb-Macklin Company of New York and Chicago acquired the molds and rights to reproduce White’s frame designs and began making copies under its own name in 1912. … A selection of these designs can be seen in photographic plates of grouped frame corners, presented in a book on his father’s work by Lawrence Grant White, Sketches and Designs by Stanford White, New York: Architectural Book Publishing 1920.” —excerpt from Beaux Arts & Crafts: Masterpieces of American Frame Design 1890–1920, p. 16, High Museum of Art exhibition catalogue written by Tracy Gill.
GL-9153 RARE Stanford White foliate grille frame
Above: Ten period frames designed by Stanford White from the Gill & Lagodich Collection. Photo credit: Simon Cherry.
“Stanford White was a champion frame designer. For adaptation of classical elements into new works of art, White’s frames remain unsurpassed. He embraced, experimented, and transformed traditional patterns. Architectonic tabernacle styles, frames with pierced foliate and arabesque patterns, basket weaves, fish-scales, twining leaves, and fence-like grilles with different tonalities of gold and metal leaf were specifically created to harmonize with each individual painting.” — fig. 5, p 143, excerpt from “American Period Frame Connoisseurship in the Twenty-first Century,” extensive chapter written by Tracy Gill and Simeon Lagodich, contributing authors, American Art Collecting and Connoisseurship, Merrell Publishers Limited, London and New York, Sept 2020.