Antique Picture Frames

In the sorting and scanning of old pictures, my focus has been on identifying and categorizing. I hadn't even considered the frames until last week when we went through the boxes of pictures Bud brought home after his Mom died last year. We will never know who most of the people are in the photos which is too bad because his grandmother was born in the Icarian Colony. Some of the pictures may be of historical significance beyond his family.
I remember when I was attending a lot of auctions in years past when everyone was crazy over old picture frames. Antique dealers, even neighbors with more money than I had, were bidding hot and heavy in order to take home the prized frames. These two oval frames my husband inherited would probably have been much sought after then. I may try to get replacement glass for these frames so we can use them. I think they would look very nice on our walls.

I have a few old frames. These two are from the 1930's. The picture of my Mom when a teenager is in a tilt-top table frame. The Mother and Baby picture was one of Mom & Dad's wedding gifts in 1937.

I love the glass art deco frame on the left. The surprising thing is that it remains intact. It was in a box of Grandma Delphia's photos. I remember it being on her dresser with a picture of one of Mom's sisters as a teenager in it. I'll pass the photo on to her family, but I'm keeping the frame. The signed Cary Grant photo was underneath my aunt's. It came with the frame, I'm sure. I always liked him. For a while I will keep him showing; eventually covering him up once more - with a picture of my Mom, most likely.
The other two pieces in this photo were gifts from friends and hang as a grouping above my chair in my reading corner. The Family Tree plaque from The Wild Goose Studio in Kinsale County, Cork, Ireland was hand made. It reads on the back:  "The tree epitomizes Life itself, with its roots drawing up nourishment from the earth, its trunk soaring skyward & its branches reaching out towards the heavens. It is also a symbol of family and relationship: the Family Tree connects us to our past, rooting us in the ground from which we have come; the flowering branches speak of our future, new possibilities & the next generations; the trunk is where we are now, bridging past & future, weathering changes. The trunk is the individual, while the roots & branches link us to the larger system of the planet, the extended human family to which we all belong."
The last line is in bolder print and attributed to Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.: " In a real sense all life is inter-related. We are caught in a network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny." The older I get, the more I realize the truth of this statement.

Close up of three of the frames. The "Dedication To The Spirit of Friendship" reads: "Friendship is not companionship; it does not mean perfect accord; it need not be reinforced by frequent contact. Friendship is an unspoken Loyalty that makes us rejoice in the happiness of our friends, that fears no misunderstanding when mutual intimacies are shared, that prompts us to be charitably frank ... And it never allows us to publicly evaluate one another in other terms than the best that we know." An old sentiment they found in an antique shop - it sounds old-fashioned, but it describes perfectly how I feel about true friendship.

I regret that I am no closer to learning any more about this picture than when I wrote about it April 1, 2011 in my "On To Another Mystery" blog. It is still a mystery and still a favorite picture.

 Close up of the beautiful frame.

This picture hangs in the same spare bedroom as the 'old woman and small boy walking through the woods'. The frame is made of re-cycled barn wood which was a popular thing thirty years ago. I wonder if it will ever become a sought after, antique frame? I replaced the picture that was in it with this pioneer woman which from a value point was probably a mistake.
The frame originally held a numbered, signed, pen and ink drawing (which I still have somewhere). The pioneer woman I replaced it with is a photo taken of a picture that was in a newspaper and then enlarged. Certainly nothing that is ever going to be valuable.....but I don't care. The woman speaks to me. I imagine her hard life. She is either carrying a bucket of water from a distant stream or she is fighting a prairie fire. She is strong. She is a fighter. She is a survivor.