Early 20th Century American Gesso and Wood/Wicker Gold Leaf Ornate Picture Frame, Heywood Wakefield/Paul Frankl Style

Description

Antique American Early 20th Century Victorian Gesso And Wood/wicker Picture Frame. Embellished With Relief Scrolls And Florals. Possible Heywood Wakefield … more Antique American Early 20th Century Victorian Gesso And Wood/wicker Picture Frame. Embellished With Relief Scrolls And Florals. Possible Heywood Wakefield Company/Paul T. Frankl Collaboration. 34” X 22”. Opening 23.5” X 10.5”. Original Gold Leaf With Dutch Blue Applied At Later Date. Housed Pastel A La Hudson River School By M. Degraff (Removed For Restoration) Very Good Condition

In researching the history of this frame, I am indebted to Susan Tanzini, of Dovetail Antiques, New Jersey. Without her knowledge and gracious sharing of information, I would have remained clueless! Her initial responses took me on another fascinating journey about a “piece” from our earlier history.

To establish indirect “provenance”: The frame belonged to my paternal grandparents, both born in the late 1800’s, who lived outside of Philadelphia. A lawyer, he commuted everyday to work as an editor for a law journal; she raised three children as well as having a career as a silversmith. They were fortunate to travel extensively, and to be able to collect many treasures locally and abroad.

Originally, the frame housed a pastel a la Hudson River School, done by M. DeGraff, a seemingly prolific late 19th - 20th Century American artist noted for his landscapes. (No information is available about him on the internet!) We had to remove the picture for restoration. The pastel and the frame were all I had to start with….
Susan wrote: “The frame does have some wicker work, it's not the fancy curlicues type frame. The elaborate applied gesso flower designs throughout the frame are really the focal point of the frame. It's really stunning.”

And in further discussions said: “I know that artist (M. DeGraff)! All of the antique wicker picture frames that I have sold had his art in them. I think he must have had a contract with Heywood Brothers and Wakefield Company and added his art to their frames.” Which all prompted the following thread, and possible speculation about deeper connections for the piece. I can never claim these ARE the sources, but can say they were INSPIRED by them!
From another internet blogger: “You know you have a gesso frame with some authentic age if you flip it over and the wood looks old, there is evidence the art was held in place with small nails, the hanging hardware is screw eyes and the chipped edges of the ornamental decorations on the front are are white (not wood colored).”

This frame was finished with a very old brown paper backing, metal headless nails and wood slats. (Please see pictures.)

As to a short description of a “Gesso Frame”: it is a wooden frame that has applied ornamentation and detail made from a gesso (Italian for “chalk”). A chalky, thick plaster-like white material, it is typically made from calcium carbonate or calcium sulfate, water, rabbit-skin glue, and sometimes linseed oil. “Molded gesso provided an inexpensive and versatile material for frame makers that had the added advantage of ‘tooth’ – it provided good adhesion for either paint or gilding size if it was to be covered with gold or silver leaf. Molded designs could be as simple as a rope border or highly intricate with small flourishes and flowers. A gold leaf or silver leaf framed piece of art is most likely coated gesso.” (Quotes from the internet.)

HISTORY OF HEYWOOD WAKEFIELD COMPANY:
In 1826, the Heywood brothers (Walter, Levi, and Benjamin) began their business in Gardner, MA. Walter made chairs, and Levi and Benjamin sold them at their country store. In 1831, Levi moved to Boston, opening a chair retail store front, followed by the brothers formalizing their partnership. During the next three decades the business expanded, Levi being instrumental. He got the Fitchburg Railroad to run through Gardner, eventually leading to the building of the Boston, Barre and Gardner Railroad. As a result, more markets became accessible to the Heywood Brothers Company. Around 1874, the firm began to manufacture chairs and other furniture of reed and rattan. By the late 1870’s and 1880’s, production increased and warehouses were opened in Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and San Francisco.

By 1900, the two most popular American companies making wicker/rattan furniture were the Heywood & Morrill Rattan Company, and its chief competitor and rival, the Wakefield Rattan Company. Since the mid 1850’s, both businesses had been in production; their market for outdoor and conservatory furnishing peaked during the last quarter of the 19th Century.

Consolidated in 1897, the two companies formed the Heywood Brothers & Wakefield Company. In 1921, the firm reincorporated under the name Heywood-Wakefield Company. The merged entity stayed abreast of wicker furniture trends in the 1920’s as the Art Deco Style began to gain popularity by hiring well known designers, like Paul Frankl and Donald Deskey, whose influence on design started with the company and can be seen in its later product lines. By the mid-century, the company had ‘made its mark’, being featured at the 1933 Century of Progress World’s Fair in Chicago and again at the World’s Fair in New York in 1964. As wicker began to decline in popularity, the company expanded its production of wooden furniture in the Art Deco and Modern styles. Heywood Wakefield operated its Gardner, Massachusetts, plant until 1979. Rights to the company name were sold to South Beach Furniture Company in 1994

Over time, the company’s furnishings drew from all the popular styles of the late Victorian period, as well as the Aesthetic Movement, Art Deco and Japanese influences; simpler designs arose in the wake of the Arts and Crafts Movement. The product line included strollers, baby carriages, settees, side chairs, arm chairs, rockers,
rockers, pedestals, fern stands, tables and picture frames.

IN THE COMPANY’S OWN WORD’S:
“For the first few decades of the newly-merged company’s existence they kept with their original formula – pumping out wicker and rattan pieces that found their design influence in Japanese motifs and the Aesthetic movement. While they started to streamline their designs during the Arts & Crafts movement, the company was struggling….to define its new look. That all changed starting in the 1920s with the hiring of innovative designers such as Paul Frankl, Russel Wright, Gilbert Rohde, and Donald Deskey. This gamble to invest in cutting-edge design paid off. Soon these new Art Deco-inspired designs found an eager audience and Heywood-Wakefield developed a legendary following….

The new company rose to particular popularity 1930s, 40s, and 50s with its solid wood, Art Deco-inspired mid-century modern furniture, eventually to become “one of the most famous and highly regarded legacy American furniture companies, especially among those that still exist today. Though….best known for….innovatively stylish and simple mid-century modern furniture pieces”.

In the 1930s, the company truly came into its own. The company’s prominent designers took inspiration from the Art Deco movement and helped shape the look of mid-century modern furniture, as well as the broader taste of the times… an iconic part of the era, known particularly for specializing in the highest quality hand-crafted solid wood furniture…..”

PAUL T. FRANKL (1886–1958):
“After Frankl completed his architectural studies at the Berlin Polytechnic, he traveled, spending time in Berlin and Copenhagen before arriving in the United States in April 1914. He settled in New York City and brought with him an outsider’s fresh perspective and an enthusiasm for forging a uniquely American design aesthetic. Frankl began as an architect and later switched to designing and painting fine art and furniture. In the years between the two world wars he, more than any other designer, helped shape the distinctive look of American modernism.
In the 1920s, he introduced his celebrated skyscraper style (before turning to metal furnishings in the 1930s). Frankl opened Frankl Galleries on 48th Street, calling his company Skyscraper Furniture, which became an epicenter of American modernism, including modern textiles and wallpapers imported from Europe.
His solo art shows included New York City's Knoedler Gallery in 1931 and Los Angeles's Stendahl Gallery in 1944.

After he later relocated to Los Angeles and opened a gallery on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, celebrities such as Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Walter Huston and Alfred Hitchcock became clients.
Frankl wrote several books and magazine articles about the Modern Style and was its most vocal proponent. He later designed production pieces for Brown Saltman of California and Johnson Furniture Company of Grand Rapids, incorporating an early use of biomorphic designs and novel materials such as cork veneer. His style continuously evolved, from early skyscraper furniture to relaxed and casual designs favored by the Hollywood elite in the 1930s to manufactured pieces for the mass market in the 1950s. In 1934 he moved to Los Angeles where he taught at the University of Southern California and the Chouinard Art Institute.” (From the internet.) less