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Lot Essay
This flower and fruit festooned frame, with heroic trophies of arms and armour laid aside, celebrates 'The Triumph of Peace'. 'Modern' as opposed to Roman, arms and armour are laid aside on the lambrequined cornice, and comprise a seventeenth century laurel-enriched Cavalry officer's helmet and pistols.
Its acanthus-enriched ribbon scrolls, serpentined, scalloped and fretted with 'gothic' quatrefoiled flowers typifies the French 'picturesque' fashion, that was popularised in the 1740s by the carvers' pattern books issued by Matthias Lock, such as 'A New Book of Drawing', 1740 and Six Sconces, 1744. Considered by his contemporaries as London's leading exponent of the style, Lock was chosen by the picture frame maker Henry Jouret (d. 1775), when he moved from 'The Architrave Frame', Grafton Street, to design his richly flowered trade-card advertising new premises at 'The Gold Frame', Maiden Lane, Covent Garden.
Such 'trophy' frames, especially when carved 'in ye Grandest Manner' were favoured during the 1730s by King George II's son Frederick, Prince of Wales (d. 1751). The enormous sum of 160 was paid in 1739 to the celebrated carvers and gilders Paul Petit (d. 1757) and Henry Jouret for their magnificent frame for the Prince's 1736 portrait by Jonathan Richardson; and this was likewise embellished with armorial trophies comprising pikes, flags, drums and cannon (D. Buttery, fig. 3). The present frame's rustic 'gothic' pedestals supporting trophies at the side, also feature on the frame Petit executed for Thomas Hudson's portrait of the Prince, and which was presented to Trinity College, Dublin in 1745 (D. Buttery, fig. 2).
Another frame of this group, for which Petit received 21 in 1742, was the 'Rich picture frame' ornamented with trophies of the chase. This was provided for a sporting picture of the Prince that had been executed two years previously by John Wootton (D. Buttery, fig. 1).
Its acanthus-enriched ribbon scrolls, serpentined, scalloped and fretted with 'gothic' quatrefoiled flowers typifies the French 'picturesque' fashion, that was popularised in the 1740s by the carvers' pattern books issued by Matthias Lock, such as 'A New Book of Drawing', 1740 and Six Sconces, 1744. Considered by his contemporaries as London's leading exponent of the style, Lock was chosen by the picture frame maker Henry Jouret (d. 1775), when he moved from 'The Architrave Frame', Grafton Street, to design his richly flowered trade-card advertising new premises at 'The Gold Frame', Maiden Lane, Covent Garden.
Such 'trophy' frames, especially when carved 'in ye Grandest Manner' were favoured during the 1730s by King George II's son Frederick, Prince of Wales (d. 1751). The enormous sum of 160 was paid in 1739 to the celebrated carvers and gilders Paul Petit (d. 1757) and Henry Jouret for their magnificent frame for the Prince's 1736 portrait by Jonathan Richardson; and this was likewise embellished with armorial trophies comprising pikes, flags, drums and cannon (D. Buttery, fig. 3). The present frame's rustic 'gothic' pedestals supporting trophies at the side, also feature on the frame Petit executed for Thomas Hudson's portrait of the Prince, and which was presented to Trinity College, Dublin in 1745 (D. Buttery, fig. 2).
Another frame of this group, for which Petit received 21 in 1742, was the 'Rich picture frame' ornamented with trophies of the chase. This was provided for a sporting picture of the Prince that had been executed two years previously by John Wootton (D. Buttery, fig. 1).