The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-01-19 00:00:00

PICTURE FRAMES BY MACHINERY

(From the Art-Union.)
The ultimate desideratum in the popularisation of art is
to bring it as an educational means to the hearths of abodes
humbler than those under the roofs of which it has hitherto
found a resting-place. It is not necessary to say that in
this case pictures are out of the question : we would here
speak of prints, of their multiplication, and of the best
method of rendering them available. Our own social
state owes little, as yet, to art ; there is room for, and now
happily the means of, a vast and beneOcial amount of " in-
debtedness."

We have cheap editions of good books, and we desire
cheap editions of good pictures. We claim the merit of
the broad and steady advocacy, of this principle, the fruit
of which is fast maturing ; and it is with such view that /
we give monthly to our readers a transcript of some pr°"
duction more or less valuabp, and the value of whietvlbau,
be henceforth greater • but such engravings have been de-
prived of an opportunity of effectively " doing their spi-
riting" from the circumstance of their being unframed.
because the cost of a frame will be at least five or .
times that of the print. Towards the framing of prints,
the reduction of the duties on glass has done much, and
the invention we are about to notice effects, we do hope,
the rest in this long-desiderated object.
The invention is that of Mr. Bielefeld; and the result
at which he arrives is a really good and ornamental frame
(eightpence per foot) at which the
meanest shelter in which a work of art ever found
refuge
anufactured. This is as usual, effected
b
of the common 'forms, technicallY
bevel, hollow, &c., can be enriched with
work similar to, engine-turning, or Mr II
te t
ahe
alel tehd eme machinery.osoteasg tlowestewne, oobeodv
delicateon priceimo n,y
relieved arabesques of any design. The principle is new,
as applied to manufacture of this kind ; it is simply to pass
any length of frame under a roller in which is cut the de-
sired pattern. This roller, the radius of which is but ei
few inches, is turned out of a rough cast of gun metal, and
is driven by a steam-engine. The wood which is passed
under it is necessarily soft, say the best pine, and receives
at any length the impress of the most delicate tracert.
mlepdleesteigans
iannaillniittas tsibeanrpe;
which can- be engraved on the metal. The advantages Ot
this are sufficiently apparent ; but there are yet other;
erdu also in colours, and hav-
ing may be mentioned. The wood comes from thg ma'
enier
enoynbhefeugcoisatn;::::yirttwityu r
eoe:
tesrirehiesecr
etraa;hiNtiloehfw
oyatdratiefsfl
Florentine
beenndimeea
snexgheenttti
extent
bdnndefiniot.
ozer
srtngoeunz,
picturesfr
deteriorated
surface
improvemento oa,tt
or hreattetreoednpbedoryfearttalailliolnennoast sizes.hr dcicesei nbpayt
ar:nbolortrn e‘ manufacturefm t.
frame
meansba
no di
of whitening and sizing. The process is a patent, and e°
developed, although the inventor will apply it to the ma'
accessible to limited means. The want has been a source
of complaint, when so many of the most beautiful produc-
tions of the burin are no longer very costly. An outerl
may be raised by those employed in the manufacture ac-
cording to the old method ; but under the auspices of th°
genius temporis, it is the good of the many we must advo-
cate ; and considering the cheapness of good prints, 0'
that class likely to conic into the possession of the middle
classes,ths discovery
is very apposite to the time.
this machinery will soon be, if it be nob
at this moment, such as to enable him who buys a print
for a shilling to place it in a worthy frame for another shil"
The
results of
ling, or very little more. And when we speak of a shilling
print, let no one suppose that we allude to an inferior
work : some admirable productions of art may now be at'
mined for that sum ; may we not refer to those which aP' N
pear in the present number of our journal, and those whimi
we hope to present to our subscribers ?
The consequence will be, ere long, that framed pri-
will occupy walls that are now either bare or covered wit)}
injurious or unmeaning papers ; and that fine examples°
art will instruct the dwellers in houses where expenski,
luxuries cannot enter. We consider that to produce TW"

4"SM
ing prints good and cheap.
*** We understand that the Messrs. Keys, of Bola'
street, have purchased the sole right of sale for Lanes'
shire for the above frames from the patentee, Mr. Bie.11;
Feld, of London. We have seen some specimens, wturvi
surpass in beauty anything we have ever seen produces' kl n

osix times tlic