Frames in the Royal Collection

The history of picture frames in the Royal Collection is one of shifting tastes and styles that mostly dates back to the seventeenth century, with a few from earlier periods. Over the centuries, many monarchs have had the paintings reframed to reflect the fashion of the day. This will brief guide introduces some of the styles that were employed: the simple yet decorative patterns of the Stuarts, the large influx of Italian frames through the Consul Smith collection, George IV's (1762-1830) elaborate additions to existing frames, up to Prince Albert's (1819-61) systematic reframing of the Buckingham Palace Picture Gallery.

Frames fulfil a vital role of protecting the paintings as well as being individual works of art. Because the attention is drawn to the painting rather than its frame, many of which were produced in large numbers by unknown makers, their finely carved and gilded ornament has often been overlooked and ignored. While not all frames may be masterpieces of craftsmanship they exist in space with their pictures and so should ideally complement them; an elaborate frame will not always suit a simple picture and by the same token a large, grand portrait may lack grandeur in a small plain frame. In most cases our images of a frame are presented without their paintings to allow the object to be appreciated for its own merits.

The Royal Collection currently contains almost 8000 paintings many of which have a corresponding frame, these all have a Royal Collection Inventory Number (RCIN) that is in the 7000000 range and if it frames a painting, which have RCINs in the 400000 range, the 7 will prefix the paintings RCIN.