Frames - Pewter · Glass

Frames enclose memories, they can surround and embellish mirrors, paintings, the façades of buildings; they isolate objects from their surroundings and highlight their value. Over the centuries, their style has followed the evolution of taste in furnishings. Wooden Gothic frames are full of gilded pinnacles and spires. Renaissance frames feature quadrangular structures, similar to windows, and are decorated with friezes and festoons of flowers and fruit. In the seventeenth century, frames were heavy gilded mouldings. In the baroque period, frames were often oval, fluid and decorated. Eighteenth century frames were extremely elegant, especially the gilded, lacquered or Murano glass versions from Venice. Neo-classical frames are often decorated with stylised palmette patterns.

The frames in the Century collection reproduce the cornices of the windows in the Italian art cities. The frames in the Cardo collection are inspired by the ornamental elements that often decorated furnishings and buildings in the various Italian regions they are named after.