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Took my wife to the city for her birthday earlier this week. Spent the day in the art museum. Easy to be overwhelmed in the presence of such great works of art. Got to see a couple Vermeers which I think is a huge treat.

But what really bowled me over wasn’t a painting but an 18th century carved frame. It had a cross-hatched ground and c-scrolls and acanthus leaves 1/2″ deep. It was magnificent. I wanted to take a picture of it for you but I couldn’t. “No really, I just want a picture of the frame!”

I’m an art fan, so no one has to drag me to the museum. If you’re not and you feel like your wife does in the Sears tool department, look at the frames.

You know you’re a woodworker when your favorite piece in an art museum is a frame!


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Showing 6 comments
  • iwtmmo

    I am just a newbie of woodworking! I think I need to learn a lot!!

  • Yaakov Bar Am

    I don’t think most wives do appreciate such things. My wife doesn’t even like to go to the lumber yard with me. Imagine! She thinks it is boring looking through a pile stock for the best boards! Non-woodworkers, can’t live with them, can’t live without them.
    yaakov….
    http://fbyaakov.wordpress.com

  • Woddworking fan

    now I know I’m woodworker;)

  • Adam Cherubini

    I think backs are fair game. Don’t you agree that frames are seriously more underground? I mean, heck, I’ve seen wall colors in museums or the font types of the placards that I just loved. That’s pretty esoteric. Backs? No you guys aren’t making me feel better at all. This was one seriously nice frame. Need one of those James Bond spy cameras.

    This wasn’t the only time I was foiled in a museum when I wanted to snap a picture. I remember being in the MET with Joel and wanting to take a picture and having the guard almost grab my camera like a recently shorn Brittany Spears or stumbling Lindsey Lohan. I was surprised the guard didn’t spit on me. But, hey, that’s New York.

    Joel asked me why I didn’t use my "press credentials". Do I have press credentials? Chris? Are we members of the mainstream press?

  • james

    I’m always trying to see the construction of the back of the piece.

    Me To! It’s the reason i collect old furniture, i have always been fascinated by the construction details of early american furniture. I can spend hours with pieces turned upside down, drawers set aside and 1000 watts of light on the matter at hand. Wonderful way to spend the day actually. Try that in a museum and you are gonna be arrested in a hurry.

  • Frederick

    I’ve basically done the same thing with period furniture, except that I’m always trying to see the construction of the back of the piece. It’s usually placed too close to the wall and invisible. I remember putting in a request at the DeWitt Wallace Museum, Williamsburg, for their furniture to be placed AWAY from the walls so that the backs may be seen. I went back one year later and to my surprise, they had moved everything away from the walls and now the backs were visible.

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