Among the hills, Penzance
(1917-1925)

Samuel John Lamorna BIRCH

Medium: watercolour over pencil
Measurements: 49.8 × 59.8 cm (sight)
Place/s of Execution: Penzance, Cornwall, England
Inscription: inscribed in brown ink (in image) l.l.: S. J. Lamorna Birch. (Birch underlined)
Accession Number: 1535-3
Department: International Prints and Drawings
Credit Line: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1925
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of the Joe White Bequest
Gallery location: Not on display
Subjects (general): Landscapes
Subjects (specific): fields (land) grass (plant material) paddock Penzance (inhabited place) roads sky trees valleys (landforms)
Frame: Original, by J. H. Steer Ltd., London

Frame

This frame draws on the form and detailing of frames from Italy and Spain, particularly Spanish bolection frames of the seventeenth century. It presents a solid border in relation to the watercolour and is one we might more easily associate with oil paintings on canvas. It nevertheless reflects a theme that runs through from the nineteenth century, to frame works on paper with the formality and grandeur of their contemporaries on canvas and panel.
Framemaker: J. H. Steer Ltd.

2 Ridgmount Street Store Street. Tottenham Court Road London W.
Date: (1925)
Materials: The frame is a mixture of cast and carved ornament worked on a wooden base. The corners of the basic construction are splined mitres. The working edge tapers at the back to produce a thin aspect when on the wall. The corner elements appear to be cast, probably in composition, set into a hollow in the timber. The leading edge is carved into the wood. The surface is false gold throughout, with variations in tone which might well be the result of variations in the alloy of the leaves themselves. There is a deliberate patination of the surface with dark paint worked into the hollows.
Condition: The frame appears to be in original condition, the variations in tone being as much to do with the original materials as to later restoration.
Dimensions: 68.5 x 78.5 x 4.0 cm; sight 49.8 x 59.8cm
More Information: National Portrait Gallery