Here are some links to websites I have found, recommended books on frames and framing and details of frame shops that we work with.

Books on Frames

There are very few good books on picture frames.  Possibly the best is

CLAUS GRIMM Alte Bilderrahmen (Callwey Verlag, München, 1978)

The book is in German – but since it is mostly photographs it is easy enough to work out what it is about.  The photos are all black and white – which gets over the problem of photographs of gilding never quite capturing that illusive surface. (There was an American edition of this book, translated, but unfortunately the photos in the US version were printed not on glossy paper and are pretty much useless.) 

The other book I often recommend as an introduction to frames is Jacob Simon’s book on English picture frames – The Art of the Picture Frame (National Portrait Gallery Publications, 1996)

 What is good about this book is that it introduces picture frames by considering not just what they look like but also discusses patrons, artists, collectors, framemakers, workshops and even the perennial complaints of framers’ clients about how expensive they are and how long their framemaker takes to do anything…

For the practical side there is this excellent book on gilding.  Just like the best cookbooks there are no glossy photos at all… simple line drawings and a clear description of gilding, both water and oil (or mordant) gilding.   A pleasure to read.

 Websites

There are few websites devoted to frames –

This one by Lynn Roberts is very good.

The National Portrait Gallery also has an academic framing website which is good for English frames and framemakers.

I also like this enthusiastic website.