Turner in Tottenham
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  • Home
    • Background
    • John Ruskin & Windus Collection >
      • Two Turner Collectors; Friends of Ruskin
    • Visitors to the Collection
    • Windus Auctions >
      • Christie's June 1842
      • Christie's June 1853
      • Christie's March 1859
      • Christie's July 1862
      • 1868 Sale after Windus death
    • Images and credits
    • Thanks
  • JMW Turner
    • The Windus Turner Collection >
      • Picturesque views >
        • England and Wales >
          • Charles Heath
          • Carisbrooke Castle
          • Richmond from the moors
          • Straits of Dover
        • Southern Coast >
          • Brighthelmston, Sussex
      • The Epicurean
      • Finden's Lord Byron
      • The Keepsake
      • Walter Scott >
        • Abbotsford
      • Later large watercolours
      • Marine Views (unpublished series)
    • Turner collection recreated >
      • Frames
      • Still framed?
      • The Windus Commissions
    • Turner oil paintings in the Collection >
      • Calais sands
      • The Tondos
      • Going to the ball
      • Later paintings
    • Letters to Windus
    • Turner Bequests: Henry Vaughan
    • Twickenham home
    • The Eccentric Mr Turner
    • Talks on Turner in Tottenham
  • PRB
    • Ford Madox Brown
    • Holman Hunt
    • Millais
    • Rossetti
    • Ruskin and the PRB
  • & Others
    • Blake
    • Frederick Leighton
    • Thomas Girtin
  • BG Windus
    • The Library
    • Family & inheritance >
      • Ansley Windus
      • Thomas Windus
    • Landowner
    • Places >
      • All Hallows >
        • William Bedwell
      • Holy Trinity
      • Old Well, Tottenham Green
      • Tottenham High Cross
      • Rodmell, East Sussex
    • People >
      • EH Baily RA
      • John Constable
      • Rowland Hill
      • William Hobson >
        • Defence of the Realm
      • Luke Howard
      • Priscilla Wakefield

Framing Turner's watercolours
The watercolours in the BG Windus collection were framed in a style of which JMW Turner approved.  Thus the painting of these watercolours in The Library in Tottenham, the seat of B. G. Windus, Esq by John Scarlett Davis was also framed in that style, enriched with moulded composition ornament.

The B.G. Windus’s collection of Turner watercolours had uniform swept Louis XV-style settings with projecting corners... Interestingly, although Windus did not generally buy paintings directly from the artist, the hang in his library is remarkably similar to that in Turner’s gallery, even to the pictures propped at a slant on chairs.  
Notes from The Frame Blog

The 'uniform swept Louis XV-style settings with projecting corners' were favoured by Turner throughout the 1830s
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The Library at Tottenham in storage © Noel Treacy taken Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum
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Alnwick Castle
The watercolour, Alnwick Castle, c.1829 painted by JMW Turner for the series Picturesque Views of England and Wales is now in the Art Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide.

The painting features in John Scarlett Davis’ 1835 watercolour of B.G. Windus’ library, leaning on a red chair next to the right-hand door.

The frame, based on the original frame as seen in John Scarlett Davis’ watercolour, was obtained by the Gallery from John Davies Framing, London in 1996.  However, its ornament is carved, unlike the moulded and applied composition of Turner's nineteenth century frames.

Art Gallery of South Australia
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Alnwick Castle, JMW Turner c.1829. Image courtesy Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
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Agnew frame of the type which was made for Lowestoffe, Suffolk by JMW Turner © Noel Treacy taken Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum
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Lowestoffe, Suffolk by JMW Turner © Noel Treacy taken Courtesy of the Trustees of the British Museum
Some of the watercolours in the collection, such as Lowestoffe, Suffolk, part of the Lloyd Bequest in the British Museum, were later placed in frames with inbuilt blinds to protect the delicate watercolours from damaging sunlight.  The pull for the blind can be seen in the frame above.

The Lloyd Collection in the British Museum – tend to have uniform settings and mounts chosen by the purchaser, often, as in this case, produced c.1912 by the firm of Agnew, which seems automatically to have reframed many of the Turners which have passed through its hands.  Watercolour frames with inbuilt blinds, ... which have been described as Ruskin’s, were almost certainly also produced by Agnew’s, possibly in the late 19th, but more probably in the early 20th century.
Notes from The Frame Blog
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Examing the Turner watercolours at the British Museum © Noel Treacy

Thanks to Gerry Alabone for additional notes.

Thank you also to Angela, Chris and Enrico in the Print Room for their help and patience.

To see the framing of the JMW Turner tondo oil paintings in the Windus collection click here
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