Maple Wood Picture Frame
These maple wood picture frame selections offer distinctive timber grain for framing small watercolours, oils, and portraits from the nineteenth century.
Maple Wood Picture Frame
A maple wood picture frame brings a warm, figured timber surround to small nineteenth-century paintings, watercolours, and portrait miniatures. Buyers search for this phrase to find period surrounds that enhance domestic art with characteristic timber patterns.
The versions most commonly met on this page date from the Georgian, Regency, and Victorian eras, alongside Biedermeier and early twentieth-century examples. These surrounds often house portrait miniatures, landscape watercolours, or small oil panels.
How they were made
Makers utilised distinct timber selections, notably birds-eye and burr maple, to create patterned wooden surfaces for picture frames. These woods were shaped and polished to highlight natural grain variations.
Surrounds were frequently constructed to house specific formats such as wall art, portrait miniatures, and oil paintings on panel or tin.
Listings feature wood, paper, glass, gold leaf, burr wood, and gilt across the nineteenth century and 1920.
What varies in quality
Quality rests in the intensity and figuring of the timber grain visible across the maple wood picture frame mouldings. Finer examples display lively birds-eye or burr patterns that remain well-preserved.
The crispness of the frame profile and the harmony between the timber surround and its contents distinguish superior period pieces from simpler iterations.
Samuel Dixon·Henry Travis·Robert Faulkner·J. Mitan
The Maple Wood Picture Frame Glossary
- Birds-eye maple
- A figure in maple wood where small knots resemble tiny bird eyes. This pattern is prized for decorative cabinetry and picture frames.
- Burr wood
- A growth on a tree resulting in distorted grain growth. It yields highly figured veneer used on quality frames.
- Rebate
- The recessed inner channel at the back of a picture frame where the glass, artwork, and backing board sit. It secures the contents.
- Gouache
- An opaque water-based medium used for paintings. It appears frequently in period framed works.
Maple Wood Picture Frame: Frequently Asked Questions
What periods do these frames date from?
The pieces span the Georgian, Regency, and Victorian eras, alongside Biedermeier and early twentieth-century examples.
Such dating derives from construction methods, timber treatment, and the style of the enclosed artwork.
What types of art do these frames hold?
These surrounds house small oil paintings, watercolours, portrait miniatures, and sporting prints.
Many retain their original nineteenth-century contents, such as painted portraits on panel or paper.
Are these frames suitable for modern walls?
Their compact scale and warm timber tones suit domestic gallery walls or smaller display spaces.
They pair well with both period watercolours and contemporary interior settings.