29 Framed Prints Resellers Buy for the Glass and Wood

A framed print on a thrift store wall is really three purchases at once: the image, the frame around it, and the glass in front. Sellers who look only at the picture leave money hanging on the wall.

Reading a framed piece takes about forty seconds. Tilt it toward the light to check the glazing, study the profile of the molding, then turn it over, because the back of the board is the most honest surface in the entire object.

Victorian Chromolithographs

Chromolithography layered a dozen or more separate color stones to imitate the look of an oil painting, and the results papered American parlors from the 1860s through about 1900. Under magnification the surface shows soft, overlapping fields of color rather than a dot grid.

Foxing and acid burn transferred from a wood pulp backing board are the usual damage. Clean examples in period frames typically move in the 40 to 250 dollar range, though condition drives that number far more than the subject does.

Steel Engravings Cut From Disbound Books

Nineteenth-century books were broken up for decades, and their steel engravings ended up framed by the thousand. The tell is a crisp plate mark pressed into the sheet just outside the image, plus engraved caption lines below it.

Many carry publisher credits in tiny type at the lower corners, which places the era without guesswork. Individually these are modest, often 15 to 60 dollars, but the antique frames around them frequently cost more than the print, and paper condition decides whether a piece sells at all.

Etchings With a Plate Mark and Pencil Signature

An etching signed in pencil in the lower margin, outside the image, is a different object from one with a signature printed inside the image. The plate mark should be felt with a fingertip, a slight ridge where the metal pressed damp paper.

Edition notation, written as a fraction, usually sits at the opposite corner. Prices swing from 30 dollars for an unattributed hand to several hundred for a recognized one, and trimmed margins reduce value hard regardless of who made the plate.

Japanese Woodblock Prints

Genuine woodblock prints show color sitting in the paper fiber rather than on top of it, and the pigment often shows faintly through the reverse of the sheet. Look for slight embossing where the block pressed the paper, and for the soft fibrous deckle of handmade stock.

Later mechanical reproductions are common and reveal a regular dot pattern under a loupe. Period examples run widely, roughly 50 to 400 dollars, with fading from light exposure the single biggest destroyer of value.

Serigraphs Numbered in the Margin

A serigraph, or screenprint, lays down opaque color in flat layers thick enough to catch raking light. Tilting the sheet reveals slight relief where one color overlaps another, which no offset reproduction will show.

The margin should carry a pencil edition fraction and a signature, and the lower number of that fraction matters less than most sellers assume. Mid-century and later examples commonly sell between 40 and 300 dollars, and any water staining or ripple across the sheet cuts that sharply.

Hand-Colored Botanical Plates

Botanical plates were printed as uncolored engravings or lithographs and then painted by hand, so the pigment sits slightly above the line work and occasionally strays past it. That small imprecision is the authentication.

Sets of four or six framed alike sell far better than singles, and matching frames should never be separated for quick money. Individual plates generally land between 25 and 150 dollars, while an intact set multiplies that, and paper toning decides where inside the range a given piece falls.

Ornithological Plates From Natural History Volumes

Bird plates remain among the most decorative paper on any thrift wall. Look for a plate number in the upper corner, a Latin binomial in the caption, and the faintly waxy sheen of hand-applied watercolor over an engraved outline. Modern reproductions of the famous bird series are everywhere, so the loupe test for dots is mandatory before paying anything real.

Genuine period plates fall broadly between 40 and 300 dollars, and trimmed margins or heavy mat burn move a piece down several tiers immediately.

Antique Maps Under Old Glass

Maps get framed and then forgotten, which is good news for anyone who reads them carefully. Hand coloring along borders and coastlines, a plate mark, and a centerfold from atlas binding all point to a genuine period sheet rather than a decorator copy.

Place names and political boundaries date the sheet better than any printed line does. Framed regional maps commonly move between 60 and 400 dollars, and a split centerfold or heavy toning along that crease can halve the figure on an otherwise strong example.

Coastal and Sea Charts

Nautical charts framed as decor form a quieter category than maps and often sell to a different buyer entirely. Period charts carry depth soundings printed in tiny numerals across the water, compass roses with radiating rhumb lines, and sometimes penciled notations from actual use aboard a vessel.

Government survey charts from the late 1800s and early 1900s surface in coastal estates regularly. Expect 50 to 250 dollars framed, with working annotations adding interest rather than subtracting it, though water staining still governs the final price.

Advertising Lithographs and Calendar Prints

Advertising lithographs for seed companies, beverages, farm equipment and patent remedies were printed to be discarded, which is exactly why survivors do well. Many were issued as calendar toppers, and a surviving date pad at the bottom adds meaningfully to the total.

The colors are stone-printed and dense, with no dot structure under magnification. Prices range from 50 dollars for a common subject to well past 500 for a strong graphic image, and edge tears or tack marks at the corners determine which end of that spread applies.

Pochoir Fashion Plates

Pochoir is stencil coloring applied by hand through cut metal or oiled card, used heavily for French fashion and design portfolios in the 1910s and 1920s. The color is flat, opaque and slightly raised, with crisp stencil edges that stop abruptly rather than fading out.

Art Deco examples with strong geometric backgrounds are the ones buyers chase hardest. Singles commonly sell between 40 and 200 dollars, and because these were bound into portfolios, clean untrimmed margins matter more here than in nearly any other print category.

Photogravures

Photogravure is a photographic image etched into a copper plate and printed in ink, which produces velvety continuous tone with no dot structure at all. Early twentieth-century art photography portfolios used the process heavily, and many sheets were later framed on their own.

A plate mark and a surviving tissue guard sheet are both encouraging signs. Values run from 30 dollars for anonymous decorative work into the high hundreds for identifiable portfolio sheets, with silvering and surface abrasion the usual reasons a piece disappoints.

Movie and Travel Posters Behind Glass

Posters framed decades ago frequently retain their original fold lines, which for period film and railway advertising is normal rather than damaging. The paper should be a lighter stock than modern poster board, and offset dots will read coarse rather than fine.

Linen backing behind the sheet means someone already invested in conservation, which raises the odds the image is genuine. Framed examples span 60 to several hundred dollars, and restoration quality plus paper condition matter far more than the subject in most cases.

Mass-Market Offset Reproductions in Serious Frames

Some framed prints are worthless as images and still worth carrying to the register. A 1970s offset reproduction of a famous painting, dull and dot-patterned under a loupe, may sit inside a hand-carved gilt frame that was pulled off something better.

The print is packing material. Frames alone resell in the 25 to 200 dollar range depending on profile, size and gilding, and the condition of the corners and the gesso decides that figure more than any other factor.

Gilt Gesso Over Carved Wood

Water-gilt frames are built from carved wood, coated in gesso, and finished with leaf so thin that the red or yellow clay bole underneath shows through at the wear points. Those warm reddish highlights along high edges are the fastest authentication available.

Modern imitations use sprayed gold paint over molded composition, which chips away in flakes rather than wearing through gradually. Period gilt frames bring 75 to 600 dollars depending on size and profile, and losses to the gesso ornament reduce value faster than surface dirt ever will.

Tiger Maple Veneer Frames

Tiger maple, also called curly maple, throws a rippled chatoyant stripe across the grain that shifts as the viewer moves. Nineteenth-century American frames used it as veneer over a pine core, usually in a plain flat or ogee profile with no carving at all.

Check the corners for lifting veneer and for the thin dark glue line proving it is veneer rather than solid stock. These sell in the 60 to 300 dollar range, and veneer loss at a corner is the defect that actually moves the price.

Walnut Ogee Frames

The walnut ogee is the workhorse of Victorian American framing: a deep S-curve profile, usually veneered, running two to four inches wide. They were produced in enormous numbers for portraits and prints, which keeps supply steady and prices reasonable.

The good ones have crisp arris lines along the curve and tight mitered corners with no visible gap. Figure 40 to 175 dollars for a solid example and more for unusual sizes, while a loose corner joint or missing veneer at the miter pushes a frame to the low end.

Eastlake Incised Oak Frames

Eastlake framing, popular in the 1870s and 1880s, uses shallow machine-incised geometric lines, rosettes and stylized foliage cut into flat oak or walnut faces, often with traces of gilding left in the recesses. The ornament is cut into the surface rather than applied to it, which separates it instantly from later revival work.

Corner blocks with carved rosettes are common. Expect 50 to 250 dollars, with surviving gilt highlights in the incised lines adding real money and aggressive refinishing removing most of it.

Arts and Crafts Quartersawn Oak Frames

Quartersawn oak shows medullary rays as pale flecks and flakes across the face, and Arts and Crafts framers left them exposed under a simple fumed or stained finish. The profiles are plain, wide and flat, sometimes with visible through-tenons or pegged corners rather than concealed miters.

Original ammonia-fumed surfaces carry a deep grayish brown tone that stripping destroys permanently. These bring 60 to 350 dollars when the finish is untouched, and any refinished example drops to a fraction of that regardless of construction quality.

Deep Cove Frames

A cove frame slopes inward from the outer edge down to the lip, creating depth that makes a small print read as an important object. Nineteenth-century versions were often built in pine and finished in dark stain, gilt or a combination, with a gold-leafed liner at the inner edge.

Depth is the value driver, since deep coves suit the shadow-box conversions that buyers request. Prices run 45 to 250 dollars, and separation between the cove and the liner is the flaw that costs the most to correct.

Tramp Art Frames

Tramp art frames were built from thin salvaged wood, notched along every edge with a pocket knife and stacked into pyramids of receding layers around the opening. Most date from the 1870s through the 1930s and were made across North America and Europe by unrecorded hands.

Count the tiers, because more layers and finer notching mean more labor and more money. Framed examples commonly bring 75 to 400 dollars, and missing chips along the stepped edges, nearly impossible to replace convincingly, set the ceiling.

Barnwood and Weathered Board Frames

Genuine old barnwood carries silvered gray surface fiber raised by decades of weather, with tack marks from fasteners and occasional traces of milk paint trapped in the grain. The distinction from manufactured distressed stock is that authentic weathering runs on one face only, since the other side faced the inside of the building.

Saw marks narrow the era further: circular scoring points to a later mill, straight parallel cuts to an earlier one. These sell modestly at 25 to 120 dollars, and soft rot at a corner ends the conversation.

Art Deco Chrome and Bakelite Frames

Interwar framing embraced machine materials: chromed steel, polished aluminum, black lacquer and Bakelite in butterscotch, oxblood and deep brown. Bakelite feels warm to the touch and gives off a faint chemical odor when rubbed briskly, which ordinary plastic does not.

Stepped geometric profiles and bright plating define the look. Small Deco frames move at 40 to 200 dollars, and plating loss on chrome is effectively permanent, so an unpitted surface justifies paying up.

Mid-Century Floater Frames

A floater holds the artwork inside a shallow tray with a visible gap around the edge, so the piece appears suspended rather than trapped beneath a lip. Postwar galleries used them for canvas and for heavier printmaking on thick sheets.

Period versions are solid wood, often walnut or oiled teak, with a thin metal or painted inner liner. They sell in the 35 to 175 dollar range, and because buyers reuse them constantly, straight sides and clean interior faces matter more than any decorative feature.

Italian Carved and Gilded Frames

Florentine and Venetian workshops produced carved gilt frames for export through much of the twentieth century, and they surface constantly in estate settings. Hand-carved examples show tool chatter in the recesses and slight asymmetry between opposite corners, while molded composition ornament repeats identically and shrinks into hairline cracks over time.

Applied gesso ornament over a wood core sits between the two grades. Values run 60 to 450 dollars, and intact ornament at all four corners is the largest single factor in where a frame lands.

Wavy Hand-Drawn Glass

Original glazing in a pre-1920s frame is usually cylinder-drawn glass, thinner than modern float glass and full of gentle waves, faint seeds and the occasional elongated bubble. Sighting along the surface at a low angle makes the distortion obvious within a second or two.

It is also fragile and slightly green at the exposed edge, where modern glass reads nearly colorless. Antique glass sells on its own to restorers at roughly 3 to 12 dollars per square foot, and chipping at the edge lowers usable yield significantly.

Convex Bubble Glass on Oval Frames

Deep oval frames from the late 1800s and early 1900s were fitted with domed convex glass bowing outward several inches at the center, made for portrait photographs and printed memorial pieces. Replacement domes are manufactured today but cost real money, so an intact original dome often outvalues the frame around it.

Check the rim for chips concealed under the retaining wire. Intact oval frames with good domes bring 50 to 275 dollars, and a cracked dome drops the entire package to parts value.

Hand-Cut Mats With Ruled Wash Lines

Before machine mat cutters, window openings were cut by hand and decorated with ruled ink borders and thin watercolor wash bands drawn between them, sometimes with gilt lines added. French mats of this kind signal that the piece was framed by a professional who expected the contents to matter.

The bevel will be slightly irregular and the board is usually rag rather than wood pulp. Nobody spent that labor on a disposable image, which makes a period French mat a buying signal in itself.

The Back of the Board

The reverse is the most informative surface on any framed piece. Original paper dust seals, brittle gummed tape, square-cut brads and hand-driven tacks all point to prewar assembly, and the tack marks left by earlier fittings record how many times a frame has been refitted.

Gallery labels, framer stickers, exhibition tags and old auction lot numbers survive back there for a century. Labels should be photographed rather than peeled, because the paperwork frequently carries more research value than the image in front of it.

Three Purchases Hanging From One Wire

A framed print is a compound object, and compound objects reward anyone who prices each part separately. A dull reproduction inside a hand-carved gilt frame under original wavy glass amounts to two good buys and one piece of packing material.

The habit worth building is mechanical: glazing first, profile second, back third, image last.

Most shoppers do the opposite and decide within two seconds based on whether the picture appeals to them. That instinct is what leaves gilded molding and century-old glazing on the wall at eight dollars.

The material was assembled by someone who cared about it a great deal more than the last owner did, and that gap is the entire margin.

More from Home As We Make It

• 18 Affordable Places to Retire in the U.S.
• Antique Glassware That’s Worth Collecting
• Stay-At-Home Jobs That Actually Pay
• 18 Forgotten Snacks from the ’80s and ’90s
• 20 Things That Make a House Look Cleaner Than It Is

Like Home As We Make It‘s content? Follow us on MSN.