Article: Frames: Arts and Crafts

Arts & Crafts: Period: c.1890-1920

Arts and Crafts was an international design movement that flourished between 1860 and 1920 and continued its influence well into the 1930's. It developed first in the British Isles and then spread to Europe and North America by the 1890's. Using simple forms that often applied medieval, romantic or folk styles of decoration, the movement stood for a return to traditional hand-made craftsmanship, and has been said to be essentially anti-industrial.

Carrig-Rohane Shop: (Hermann Dudley Murphy)

Hermann Dudley Murphy (1867-1945) was a Tonalist painter who became a prominent frame-maker during the Aesthetic and Arts and Crafts periods. In 1903, Murphy, Charles Prendergast, and Walfred Thulin set up a frame shop, which was named "the Frame Shop of Herman Dudley Murphy". In 1911 the shop incorporated and took on the name Thulin-Murphy Company when Walfred Thulin (1878-1949) became its president. In 1914 the name changed again to Carrig-Rohane. Robert C. Vose took over management in 1915 and ran the business until its dissolution in 1939, at which time operations were moved under Vose Galleries of Boston. The "frames were carved under Murphy's specific designs showing affinities with the turn-of-the-century Arts and Crafts composition and ornaments." [1]
(Original Murphy Designs)

The collaboration of these men completely revolutionized frame-making in America, and marked a return to craftsmanship. "Often resembling cassetta frames, these signed originals are the synthesis of styles extending as far back as the Renaissance. The carved designs on the outer corners, for example, reflect 16th century Venetian Canaletto." [2] Many of Murphy's frame designs were favored by Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters, and this general style continues to be popular with modern day "En Plein Air" artists.

Franklin Childe Hassam:

Frederick Childe Hassam (1859-1935) was a well known Impressionist painter who designed his own custom frames. Hassam was a patron of the Carrig-Rohane Company, with whom he collaborated to produce many of his designs. He even had a frame named after him: "The Carrig-Rohane staff designated [frame] number 33 the 'Hassam pattern.'" [4] Hassam also favored the simple cassetta style frame profile with minimal corner carvings, and later in his career had a "CH" or "H" symbol carved throughout the frame borders.

Newcomb-Macklin Company:

Founded in 1871 by S.H. McElswain, and restructured in 1883 when Charles Macklin and John Newcomb took ownership, the Newcomb-Macklin Company worked closely with Arts and Crafts designers, including well known artists "such as Maxfield Parrish, George Bellows, John Singer Sargent, as well as many artists in the Taos community of New Mexico where they incorporated Native American motifs." [3]

The Thanhardt-Burger Corporation purchased Newcomb-Macklin Company in 1979 and continue to produce high quality, hand-made frames down to our current day.