What are CLOSED-CORNER frames?

While most frames today are joined from mass-produced, pre-finished molding, closed-corner frames are finished after joining. Before framing became a big business frames were joined in the raw – using time-honored joining methods — and then finished, as a piece of furniture would be. The traditional method, which we use exclusively, makes for stronger, cleaner and more even corners — and more enduring and beautiful frames.

What’s wrong with how most frames are made?

The vast majority of frames available today are made from mass-produced molding, finished in length and then chopped down and put together with metal or plastic fasteners or nails to make individual frames. The corners of such frames are neither as strong nor as clean and even as they should be. Frames made this way don’t allow for the sound joinery we expect of quality wooden furnishings. And at best, the finish, by necessity, is broken where the sides meet. The conventional joining methods of the framing industry have the advantage of being low-cost because they are quick and require little skill and training. But their results don’t hold up to either time or close scrutiny. Even when they’re not abused, the corners of conventional frames usually break down before too many years, simply because the joinery techniques can’t withstand normal glue failure and wood movement.

The CRAFT of Closed-corner Frames

The corners of a frame are its main points of strength and integrity, and are a primary concern for the serious frame-maker. Finishing frames after they’re joined allows for much stronger, more durable joinery (using splines, mortise & tenon joints and lap joints). Making our frames this way also means the joints are more even, since they can be sanded, planed and carved to meet perfectly. And the joints are cleaner, since the stain and varnish are continuous over the joint.

Above: Noelle does final clean-up on joints of raw frames before finishing.

Of course it also means we aren’t limited to a molding factory’s limited color offerings, but can finish the frame to exactly the right color and shade for your picture.

Above: Closed-corner frames have tight, smooth joints because they can be sanded, hand-planed and/or carved to be made even.

A great many gilded frame manufacturers produce closed corner frames, leafing the frames after joining. Holton Studio, however, works in the old “Cabinet-maker’s Frame” tradition — a legacy of ungilt (or minimally gilt) hardwood frames by furniture- and cabinet-makers that represents the origin of picture frames in Europe. Cabinet-makers’ frames are put together with the traditional expert methods of the professional joiner. Rather than relying on the dubious strength of nails and screws, traditional cabinet-makers’ frames were more likely than gilt frames to be joined with mortise & tenon, lap-joints and splines.

The ART of Closed-corner Frames

But beyond allowing stronger corners and more integrity to the finish, closed-corner frames allow for the full artistry of frame-making, as they open up infinite design possibilities which are natural and integral to the construction and materials of the frame and not simply applied. One of the great contributions of the Arts and Crafts Movement was its understanding of construction as a basis of design and as inseparable from the aesthetic affect of a piece. As structural points of strength, a frame’s corners are aesthetic points of strength as well. The frame-maker takes advantage of this to articulate the frame’s form with any number of decorative treatments to the corner design and detailing.

Above: Corner details of a handful of small mitered frame designs shows a variety of artistic possibilities for enhancing the corners – a option afforded by closed-corner frames.

Above: Through mortise & tenon joints articulate the corners of the Four-Square Basic. As Gustav Stickley wrote, in regards to the design of his Craftsman furniture, the idea is to “turn such structural devices as the mortise & tenon to ornamental use; to employ them in such a way as to force them to give accent and variety to the outlines of the object in which they [occur].”

Above: Chamfer stops articulate the corners of the Gimson frame. This frame could not be made from stock molding, since the chamfering stops at the corners. Note also how, with the chamfers stopping shy of the corners there is more mass at the corners, expressing them as points of strength. (Imagining the reverse use of chamfers — chamfering only the corners and not the sides, thereby weakening the corners — helps demonstrate this principle.)

Closed-corner construction also allows the frame to be designed with a more interesting overall form emphasizing other points of strength, such as the centers and the top.

Above: The overall form of this mortise & tenon “Secession” frame was designed in sympathy with the forms in the print (by Laura Wilder). In this case the center of the top member of the frame is articulated — a design element that would be awkward using pre-finished molding. Also the treatment of the copper-leafed liner is possible.

The sense of quality and integrity, honestly earned, in closed-corner hardwood frames contributes greatly to the presence and aesthetic effectiveness of the frame.