High Profiles:

Frames Fit for a King

Décor Magazine, December 2001

When Edward Balfour and Justin Wessels set out to establish a new source for antique frames and museum-quality reproductions, they had something a little bit different in mind. Balfour began his career as a frame restorer, and eventually buyer and salesman at Eli Wilner & Company before setting out on his own. He brings the discerning eye and the passion for collecting to the organization, while Wessels takes care of the operational and promotional end of things. Their ideas were simple, yet radical in a market where innovation is a word rarely spoken. “I had in mind something with a twist,” says Balfour. “We wanted to benefit the people who own the frames by establishing a marketplace specific to antique frames, which gets them a really good market price. In the past, a few lots of frames might have come up at an auction here or there, but by consolidating the product in a central location, and educating the buyers, we have found a successful model.”

Balfour and Wessels’ next step was to establish a Web site that would serve as an online catalog for their constantly changing inventory, and Framefinders.com was born. In the past, a frame owner wishing to sell would be taking a serious risk by offering an antique frame in a general auction, where knowledge of the pedigree and value of antique frames is all too often lacking. Galleries offering antique frames often priced them out of reach, sometimes with markups approaching 1,000 percent. Instead, Balfour & Wessels’ Framefinders, based on the upper east side of Manhattan, offers an environmen tin which the seller is in control, and has more options. The frame can be sold outright to the company as the object itself, consigned to the gallery, where they might get a better retail price from a collector with a picture in mind, or placed in one of the company’s bi-annual auctions. Held in the spring and fall, the auctions feature hundreds of frames with a collective value in the $500,000 range, all in an environment where serious collectors and galleries vie for these once overlooked gems.

“We feel that a broker’s fee arrangement in exchange for these services is more equitable for everyone involved,” says Balfour. “Only in the last 15 years have antique frames really come into their own,” continues Balfour. “People were throwing away old frames because they were not in style at the moment, and many valuable pieces were lost forever that way. We take great joy in re-marrying frames with the paintings they were created for.” More than 50 percent of the frames offered by Balfour & Wessels are very high quality antiques that retail for up to $40,000. Balfour spent two years on the road in a van, crisscrossing the country in search of antique frames in barns, attics, and back rooms from Maine to Baja, and back again. “I crawled through one barn where there was a large python snake skin on top of the frame I wanted,” recalls Balfour. “I managed to get past the snakes to get what I was looking for.” One “find of a lifetime” was a very rare Prendergast frame. Brothers Maurice and Charles Prendergast were both artists, but Maurice became well known as one of The Eight, an early 19th-century group of American impressionists. Charles focused more on frame making. Says Balfour, “Prendergast only made 200 to 400 frames, and I have only ever seen five or six. I began my search in places where people collected the art associated with these frames, and finding an original Prendergast frame was like striking gold.”

Where to from here? Balfour continues to see the enterprise as “not just another frame gallery in New York.” Because he is so intimately involved with collecting and making available high-quality antique frames, he feels the need to educate others. “I hope to get enough money together to eventually do a documentary on the subject,” muses Balfour. “People need to learn about the history of art and craftsmanship that goes into these frames. For so many years they were discarded, and now, finally they are beginning to come into their own again. We are in a unique position to educate people about these frames, which we feel is very important.”

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