English Frames Given that picture frame artifacts from 14th century to 16th century England are sparse, manuscript illuminations and architectural motifs serve as the best source for speculation. Italian frame styles (of the tabernacle and Sansorvino variety) regularly appear in print, with occasional references to French and Flemish forms. Cathedrals, such as Canterbury and Westminster, contain architectural elements similar to their Italian counterparts, with regularly occurring Gothic trefoil arches and quatrefoils. Looking at surviving frames from the 17th century, one is confronted by the diversity of co-existing styles: Dutch black and Italian leaf frames, for example, prove to be popular models. The English also assimilated the so-called Canaletto frame from Venice. In England this style became known as the ''Lely'' frame (the portraits of Sir Peter Lely often bear such frames). Overlapping the Lely design and continuing through the Queen Anne period was an interpretation of Italian Baroque bolection, or reverse, frames that was carved with continuous center-to-corner gadrooning. This refined form, particular to Britain is often referred to as the ''Kneller'' frame; with its fast rhythm of centrally radiating lines, the gadrooning acts dramatically to focus on the sitter. A number of important English architects and designers devised picture frames, including William Kent, Thomas Chippendale and Robert Adam. The Kentian frame often featured croixetted corners and classical ornamental detail--both of which appear in Kent's treatments of door surrounds and furnishings. Chippendale designed frames in a range of styles including Chinoiserie, Louis XV and neo-Gothic styles; while Adam is often credited with the rediscovery of composition, which he used delicately in his Neoclassical frames. By the 1770's, Adam had begun to regularly replace carved wooden ornaments with papier-mâché composition. The Maratta, or Salvator Rosa, was popularly used in the last quarter of the 18th century and the first quarter of the 19th century. As distinct from the Italian examples, English Maratta usually combine water gilding on the profile with oil gilding on the applied ornamentation. Not surprisingly, many English styles were exported to the colonies, thereby enabling the Maratta to become one of the most fashionable frames in early 19th century America. As mechanization increased the supply of composition-ornamented framing it negatively impacted the frame making craft. Eventually, Italian Neoclassical frames in England were made using composition almost exclusively, as were neo-Baroque and neo-Rococo styles based on French 18th century frames. These manufactured designs were uninspired in design, workmanship and finish. The Pre-Raphaelite painters, with their concern for craftsmanship, were the first group of artists in England to seek alternatives to mass-produced frames. As early as the 1840's, they were designing their own frames or commissioning craftsmen willing to produce frames tailored to their aesthetic taste.