From:Golden Memories Millthorpe Museum

Name/TitleGeorge Bevear’s Carved Picture Frame

About this objectThis unique picture frame, dated to the late nineteenth century, was hand carved by a certain George Bevear (locally known as George ‘Beaver’), reputedly using only a pocket knife. An idiosyncratic and aesthetically fascinating piece, the frame was presented to GMM by Miss Thelma Bevear.

The Bevear family resided in the Blayney Shire during the nineteenth century and twentieth century. George Bevear Snr was born c. 1851 in Penston, Yorkshire, and arrived in Australia in 1866 on the ‘Africana’. Working as a general carrier, contractor / carter, nurseryman and shepherd (R. Jones, pers. comm.) in Blayney, Mr Bevear married Mary Margaret Shannon (born c. 1851 - 3) in Orange in 1869. The Bevears were parents of fourteen children, including George Bevear Jnr (b. 1878), a labourer, who married Ellen Maria Garwood (b. 1877). According to the New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (NSW BDM 2010), George Snr died in 1929. Mary Margaret died in 1934 (OFHG 2009). George Jnr and Ellen were parents of noted local cake decorator and donor of the picture frame Thelma Bevear (b. 1902).

George Snr was a passionate gardener, and his home in Ogilvie St, Blayney, was famed for its ‘beautiful blooms’ which were regularly exhibited at local shows (OFHG 2009). Indeed, George Snr’s
horticultural / arboricultural talents were so well respected that he was contracted by the local council to plant the trees in Blayney’s Carrington Park (OFHG 2009; R. Jones pers. comm.). Judging from
George Snr’s gardening talents, the existence of the hand-carved picture frame at GMM, and from Thelma’s show prizes for cake decoration, flower arranging and painting dating from 1927 through to the 1967, artistic talent was a long-standing characteristic of the Bevear family. It is at present unclear as to whether the frame was carved by George Bevear Snr or George Bevear Jnr: the Museum’s donation records indicate only that the frame was carved by ‘George Beaver [sic]’. On stylistic grounds, the frame appears more consistent with a late Victorian, rather than Edwardian, period of origin, positioning George Bevear Snr as the more likely craftsman. Furthermore, it could be argued that the frame’s characteristic vegetal motifs are a reflection of George Snr’s passion for plants.

Whilst the art of framing images has antecedents in the borders painted around Egyptian and Pompeiian wall paintings, the earliest true picture frames can be said to be the triptychs of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries AD. Votive paintings consisting of a central image flanked by
hinged panels bearing subsidiary subjects, triptychs were small and often used as portable altars.

Later, fifteenth century panel painters in northern Europe, such as Jan van Eyck, adopted a simple timber moulding which complemented the panelled interior decoration of churches, homes and almshouses. At the same time, Italian ‘aedicula’ framing harked back to earlier Classical styles, and eventually developed into a more modern frame lacking cornices and displaying low relief pilasters.

Late fifteenth century frames were decorated with rosettes, volutes or raised gesso ornamentation. Baroque motifs of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, such as ornamental scallop / nautilus
shells and stylised foliage, expressed a ‘restless waywardness’ that was juxtaposed with a ‘serene certainty’ (MacNamara 1986: 12). By the Victorian period, interior design was fussy and heavily ornamented, creating ‘dust-traps’ requiring the employment of servants for maintenance (Kass 2003: 75).

The Bevear frame is historically significant as an early illustration of the ongoing passions and talents of the Bevear family. The love of plants, so obvious in George Snr and Thelma Bevear’s local show displays, is also clearly evident in this piece. Aesthetically, the frame reflects the Victorian Gothic preference for ornamentation and proves that working class amateurs, in addition to artisan specialists, were capable of making stylistic choices whilst producing fascinating pieces of craftwork.
The fact that the frame appears to incorporate a recycled artist’s easel emphasises the resourcefulness of nineteenth century amateur artists in the local district. This item is in fair condition, with damage to some projecting elements and evidence of past silverfish infestation, and has seen some repairs, evidenced by new nails / screws at the rear. The item’s provenance is tantalisingly, and perhaps frustratingly, ambiguous. Attributed to ‘George Beaver [sic]’, with no further supporting
information, it is not possible to state categorically whether this refers to the senior or junior George.

The current assessment, on the balance of probabilities, suggests that the senior man was the more likely manufacturer. The ambiguity is further highlighted by the lack of identification of the people in the photographs displayed in the frame. The fact that the frame was hand carved by an amateur lends the frame much interpretive significance: as a component of the Edwardian dining room display, the frame emphasises the fact that not every piece of furniture in a turn-of-the-century house was
purchased from a Lassetter’s catalogue.

Kim Tuovinen 2010

Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved