1985.R.327, Frame, 17th century
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Extensive use of tortoise shell decoration on frames, boxes, and cabinets was one result of the world-wide sea trade of Spain and the Spanish Netherlands (Flanders). Frame makers often used colored papers or metallic foil behind the shell or tinted it, as here, to enrich its color.
1985.R.326, Frame, 17th century
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Extensive use of tortoise shell decoration on frames, boxes, and cabinets was one result of the world-wide sea trade of Spain and the Spanish Netherlands (Flanders). Frame makers often used colored papers or metallic foil behind the shell or tinted it, as here, to enrich its color.
1985.R.323, Gilted sculpted frame, Grinling Gibbons, 17th century frame
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The picture frame is now so ubiquitous that one forgets that, like all familiar forms, it was an invention.
1985.R.37.b, Picture Frame, France, c. 1720
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
This small oak frame is in a fine state of preservation. Although it maintains the center and corner cartouche common in French frames of the second half of the 17th and early 18th centuries, the carving of tendrils and scrolls pulls all elements of the frame together so that it would form a continuous decorated surface around the work of art it contained.
1989.137, Plate, c. 1755, Staffordshire, England, salt-glazed stoneware
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
During the early 18th century, English potters adopted the old German technique of throwing salt into the kiln when it was hot. The salt vaporized, leaving a clear matte glaze, as seen on this dish.
1988.67.a-b, Tea cup and saucer, c. 1769-1784, Chelsea-Derby Factory, Chelsea, England, porcelain
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Ornamented with delicately enameled multi-colored flowers and a gilded swagged rim, this tea cup reveals to the drinker additional tiny blue floral decoration that emerges upon emptying it of liquid.
1998.125.a-b, "Castleford-type" teapot, c. 1800-1820, Yorkshire or Staffordshire, salt-glazed stoneware
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
White stoneware, mainly jugs and teapots such as this example, were made at Castleford, near Leeds in England during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. These wares were often decorated in relief with slip-cast ornament in a manner similar to Wedgwood's jasperware.