Victorian S. Woolfield & Co. Pietra Dura Photo Frame

Product Details

Exquisite Victorian gilt metal and Pietra Dura tryptych photo frame.  Made by Samuel Woolfield & Co. of Glasgow, Scotland, mid-19th century.  S. Woolfield established his business circa 1823, specializing in tea caddies, dressing cases and gilt metal decorative objet, some with pietra dura plaques, such as this tryptych picture frame.  It was not uncommon to keep early photographic images in a closed environment to inhibit fading.

The top of the support easel has the company name and address:

S. Woolfield & Co.,

60 St. Vincent St.

Glasgow.

There are a few different Glasgow addresses for the company through the 19th century, including this one and one at 143 Buchanan St., Corner of St. Vincent Street, Glasgow.

The pietra dura floral center depicts forget-me-nots and white lilies.  The Victorian loved floral symbolism.

The oval frame is supported by a symmetrical vine, heavily engraved to emulate the texture of leaves.  The very top leaf of the frame has been detached and carefully restored with the support of a reticulated plaque attached to the back.  Otherwise the frame is in very good condition and the gilding is bright.  Wear consistent with age and use.

9 1/2” (24.1cm) high, 8 3/4” (22.3cm) wide-closed, 13 1/2” (34.3cm) wide-open.

“pietra dura, (Italian: “hard stone”), in mosaic, any of several kinds of hard stone used in commesso mosaic work, an art that flourished in Florence particularly in the late 16th and 17th centuries and involved the fashioning of highly illusionistic pictures out of cut-to-shape pieces of coloured stone.”

www.britannica.com

The popularity of pietra dura increased substantially in the 17th to 19th century with the increase of “The Grand Tour”, considered a cultural education of the British and Northern European elites that focused on classic Italian arts and architecture.