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Antique Oval Picture Frames for sale

Antique oval picture frames in the perfect size for your paintings are hard to find. Go for an exclusive reproduction customized to your preference!

Custom oval frames

Click below to pick your favorite model among our  vintage oval picture frames.

antique oval picture frames | cod. 023
Antique oval picture frame reproduction | cod. 023

Antique Oval Picture Frames for sale

We specialize in antique oval picture frames for sale available in any size. Our vintage oval picture frames can be customized as clients wish. Mainly, we manufacture custom reproductions with rectangular external shapes and oval internal sight. We usually recommend this kind of structure as they are cheaper and more practical. As a result of this choice, the price turns out to be more convenient because you get a more decorated and prominent frame for a lower price. Moreover, vintage style oval picture frames with a complex profile of concave and convex moldings applied circularly are challenging to build. On the contrary, models made with a wooden oval passepartout fixed inside the rectangular frame are easier to realize because it is just a matter of adding a flat wood element inside a regular frame.

We often recommend the above described type of frame structure to museums like Staatliche Museen (Gemäldegalerie). The artwork, all together with a more oversized frame, gives us the chance to insert a major number of decorations in the flat corner surfaces. Look at the model above, which was used to frame a painting of Salvator Rosa.

vintage OVAL PICTURE FRAMES WITH RECTANGULAR EDGE

Our preference for reproducing antique oval picture frames with rectangular external forms derives from a practical reason. That is because the flat wooden passepartout is the only feature necessary to add to the overall structure. In essence, that is the only extra work to apply for a transformation of a rectangular frame to an oval one. The rectangular frame, indeed, is made as usual, while the wooden flat oval part will be cut by using a simple saw following the painting sight.

This technique is extremely easy to realize. We first proceed with creating the passe-partout made of a flat MDF, then we fix it by gluing it inside the rectangular frame, and the two structures become a single solid piece.

The second step of this procedure is to decorate the four flat corners of the added part. We usually put on those empty spaces four angular decorations with the same style of the other carvings. The last step of the procedure is to gild the whole raw surface homogeneously and create a patina to age the gilding. See as an example of this work the old oval frame displayed above on this page.

Antique oval picture frames with circular edge

Making frames with an external oval shape is both complicated and dangerous. In addition, there is a lot of work to do, especially for wide-section profiles. To accomplish the task, we first start by making a flat oval piece of wood, thick and wide enough to be molded by a router. Working with the router to realize circular profiles is quite risky. Upon request, we do it, but clients have to be aware of the higher cost of this technique. The second step of the procedure is to apply the ornamentation on the naked profile, giving the final touch to the masterpiece. Although we can make antique style oval frames completely circular, therefore without passepartout, we try to address our clients to the simplest and most convenient practice.

Of course, there are specific paintings that for an aesthetic reason need antique oval frames without passepartout. Before the 17th century, flat wood profiles were widely used. For example, during the Gothic period, building altarpieces with plenty of flat surfaces in contrast with intricate motifs, was pretty common. They were used to create the sophisticated structures of Gothic panels like diptych, triptych, and polyptych. In contrast, the Renaissance era had fewer examples of those types of structures, and most Renaissance models, indeed, are circular as our cod. 094.

Circular vs rectangular edge for antique oval picture frames

We took code 094 as an example because it could be oval instead of round and our thesis would still be valid. The only reason why we did not pick an oval model as example is because we do not have it.

You can tell by yourself that the amount of material used to make cod. 094 is much less than the material used for a frame with a larger structure like our model cod. 023 (Salvator Rosa oval frame). However, cod. 094, even with less wood and gold, is more complicated to realize due to the issues described above.

With that said, we need you to be aware that both models could be realized in the opposite way. The frame cod. 094 could have external rectangular edges and cod. 023 could have an outer circular edge. The two models would still remain perfectly legitim. As a result, the sober 094 would became richer while the cod. 023 would become sober. This is just to underline the real difference between the two approaches and maybe to induce us to wonder: Is it still worth going for circular edges?

WHAT WE NEED TO REALIZE ANTIQUE OVAL STYLE PICTURE FRAMES FOR PAINTINGS

We do both realize antique oval picture frames and round frames. We want to make an essential distinction, though, that it can come in handy for customers. To manufacture antique round frames, we need just the diameter of the artwork. To realize custom oval picture frames instead, we need to have the perfect shape of the painting drawn on paper. Therefore, to accomplish an ideal result, it is better to send the drawing of the artwork perimeter via traditional mail.

No matter how big it’ll be the drawing, we will unfold it on the floor to use it as a reference to create a sight frame 5 mm smaller than the painting itself. If necessary, we can even create rabbets (overlap) much broader. That’s just up to the client’s need. Indeed, if a painting has to be covered more than 1 cm all around the perimeter, there won’t be any problem for us.

VINTAGE OVAL PICTURE FRAMES FOR CHEAP

Even though our primary mission is to deliver exclusive reproductions of antique oval picture frames, for a decade, we have elaborated a cheaper production of vintage oval picture frames for interiors. Our solution for the most affordable price is delivering a product rich in decorations but still accessible to a vast strum of customers. For this purpose, it is more valid than ever the use of external rectangular edges.

Oval picture frames vintage realized in eclectic style

We have a catalog with more than 1000 molding in length that you can pick to build cheap custom oval frames. Most of the profiles shown in our catalog are in modern style, but still, you can find at least 100 models with different section widths and finishing that you can always buy as vintage oval picture frames.

Pick any model, and we will craft by our passepartout technique either contemporary style frames or vintage oval picture frames with the same care we use for our most expensive models displayed above.