Lowy Frame and Restoring Company

Last updated • 3 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Lowy Frame and Restoring Company
IndustryFraming and art restoration
Founded1907;117 years ago (1907) in New York City
FounderJulius Lowy
Key people
Larry Shar
Brad Shar
Website lowy1907.com

Lowy Frame and Restoring Company is a framing company founded in New York City in 1907. [1]

Contents

History

Julius Lowy opened a small shop on the corner of 56th and Sixth Ave, NYC, catering to local art dealers, private collectors and museums in 1907. Hilly Shar and partner John Sisto began working at the company in the 1930s, and took it over after Lowy died. Hilly and John continued to expand Lowy into a full fine arts services company, including paintings and paper restoration. Larry began working alongside his father full-time in 1970, succeeding him as president in 1979. [2]

Lowy has one of the largest frame inventories in the world, featuring thousands of frames. Larry is an expert on style and period frames, and they offer reproductions of just about any frame, along with guidance regarding the appropriate nature of a particular artwork. [3]

Today, finds its home in a six-story town house on the upper east side, with in-house master gilders, art conservators, carvers and photographers. Lowy continues to cater to top institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Crystler Museum of Art, as well as auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's. [4] Larry remains president, and his son, Brad Shar, acts as vice president and general manager.

Lowy is the largest and oldest fine arts services company in the country. [5] Articles about Lowy have been published in the New York Times, [6] House Beautiful, Art & Antiques Magazine, and many other notable publications.

Larry and Brad Shar

Larry Shar was the president of Lowy Frame and Restoring Company. The second of three generations, Larry is a frame dealer, art dealer and conservator. He graduated from Brandeis University in 1969 with a degree in fine art, but has worked in the business since he was a small child under the tutelage of his father, Hilly. [2] For many years, Larry has been a member of the American Institute for Conservation, the Art and Antique Dealers League of America, and the Appraiser's Association of America. He has lectured about period frames all over the country, [7] including at the prestigious NYC Winter Antiques Show. [8]

Brad Shar, current president and owner of Lowy, has spent the last 29 years working in the family business. He started working at Lowy while still attending the New School, receiving a bachelor's degree in art history in 1996. Having both a technical and artistic side, Brad also develops and manages Lowy's computer systems and website. He started Lowy Scan, a state-of-the-art digital imaging system which matches paintings with appropriate frames, making Lowy the first fine arts company with virtual framing. [9]

Selected publications

Lowy has published hundreds of articles on antique frames, reproduction frames, framing restoration and art conservation.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chromolithography</span> Method for making multi-colour prints

Chromolithography is a method for making multi-colour prints. This type of colour printing stemmed from the process of lithography, and includes all types of lithography that are printed in colour. When chromolithography is used to reproduce photographs, the term photochrome is frequently used. Lithography is a method of printing on flat surfaces using a flat printing plate instead of raised relief or recessed intaglio techniques.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian Hornak</span> American painter

Ian Hornak was an American draughtsman, painter and printmaker. He was one of the founding artists of the Hyperrealist and Photorealist fine art movements; credited with having been the first Photorealist artist to incorporate the effect of multiple exposure photography into his landscape paintings; and the first contemporary artist to entirely expand the imagery of his primary paintings onto the frames.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Picture frame</span> Protective and decorative edging for a picture

A picture frame is a protective and decorative edging for a picture, such as a painting or photograph. It makes displaying the work safer and easier and both sets the picture apart from its surroundings and aesthetically integrates it with them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doyle New York</span>

Doyle New York is an American auction house and appraiser of fine art, jewelry, furniture, decorations and other items. It offers auctions throughout the year at its premises on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art dealer</span> Person that buys and sells works of art

An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert R. Blacker House</span> Historic house in California, United States

The Robert Roe Blacker House, often referred to as the Blacker House or Robert R. Blacker House, is a residence in Pasadena, California, United States, which is now on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1907 for Robert Roe Blacker and Nellie Canfield Blacker. It was designed by Henry and Charles Greene of the renowned Pasadena firm of Greene and Greene. This house was a lavish project for the Greene brothers, costing in excess of US$100,000.00. Everything for the house was custom designed, down to the teak escutcheon plates of the upstairs mahogany panel doors to the linen closets with their ebony cloud adorned keys.

Eli Wilner is an American businessman specializing in American and European period frames from the 19th through the early 20th century. He is a frame dealer, collector, and restorer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Skinner, Inc.</span> American auction house

Skinner was an American auction house headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts. It has been among the world's leading auction houses for antiques and fine art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Shuptrine</span> American painter (born 1963)

Alan Shuptrine is an American painter known for his Southern and Appalachian Mountains genre. He is a frame-maker, water gilder, and watercolorist. He is the son of painter Hubert Shuptrine (1936-2006).

Jonathan Leo Fairbanks is an American artist and expert of American arts and antiques. Fairbanks created the American Decorative Arts and Sculpture department at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and served as Curator of the department from 1970 to 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The European Fine Art Fair</span> Annual art fair held in Maastricht

The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) is an annual art, antiques, and design fair organized by The European Fine Art Foundation in the MECC in Maastricht, Netherlands. It was first held open in 1988.

Buck House was a gallery on Madison Avenue in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood of Manhattan's Upper East Side. The gallery opened in November 2001 and was owned and operated by artist Deborah Buck.

Henry Heydenryk Jr. (1905–1994) was a Dutch American frame maker, historian, writer and designer. He was the fourth generation descendant of a family-run business, The House of Heydenryk (Heijdenrijk). Founded in Amsterdam in 1845, the company is one of the world’s oldest framing companies. The firm made and supplied reproductions and antiques to the Tate and National Gallery museums in England, the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands and for many other important museums and private collectors including Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza and members of the Rothschild family.

Valentin Gallery is an art gallery in Quebec. Created in 1934, it was first called "L'Art français" and had its start on Laurier Street in Montreal. Owners Lucienne (1900-1992) and Louis (1890-1956) Lange initially showed works by French artists. By the 1940s they were offering art by Marc-Aurèle Fortin and Philip Surrey. In 1975, Jean-Pierre Valentin purchased the gallery. The gallery moved to its present Sherbrooke Street location later and changed the name to Valentin Gallery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conservation and restoration of wooden furniture</span> Preservation of heritage collections

The conservation and restoration of wooden furniture is an activity dedicated to the preservation and protection of wooden furniture objects of historical and personal value. When applied to cultural heritage this activity is generally undertaken by a conservator-restorer. Furniture conservation and restoration can be divided into two general areas: structure and finish. Structure generally relates to wood and can be divided into solid, joined, and veneered wood. The finish of furniture can be painted or transparent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conservation and restoration of painting frames</span> Preservation of heritage collections

The conservation and restoration of painting frames is the process through which picture frames are preserved. Frame conservation and restoration includes general cleaning of the frame, as well as in depth processes such as replacing damaged ornamentation, gilding, and toning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Truman</span>

Charles Henry Truman, FSA, was an art historian and a leading authority on gold boxes.

The Newcomb-Macklin Company of Chicago, Illinois was a nationally prominent manufacturer of hand-carved and gilded picture frames. The company was in operation from 1883 until 1979. Many of Newcomb-Macklin's frames designed in the early 20th century reflected the esthetics of the Arts and Crafts movement that flourished in the United States between 1900 and 1925. Newcomb-Macklin frames in the arts and crafts style are today regarded as antiques and are often utilized by collectors and dealers to lend an air of authenticity to the framing of period American paintings.

James Connell & Sons was an art gallery business and publisher of etchings in Glasgow and London. It was established by James Hodge Connell who retired in 1908, leaving the business to his sons James D. Connell, Thomas Connell, and David Connell. Dealing mainly in etchings and works on paper, artists whose work was sold through the gallery included: Andrew Affleck, Eugene Bejot, David Young Cameron, Hester Frood, Gertrude Ellen Hayes, Henry Rushbury, Nathaniel Sparks, Alfred W. Strutt, Edward Millington Synge, William Walker (engraver), Ernest Herbert Whydale and Mary G. W. Wilson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Sack</span> American antiques dealer (1915–2011)

Albert Milton Sack was an American antiques dealer and author. He was the son of antiques dealer Israel Sack. He wrote a popular reference book on early American antique furniture — "the bible for a generation of weekend antiquers and a standard for professional collectors" according to the New York Times.

References

  1. "About Lowy". Lowy. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  2. 1 2 Davis, Deborah (2007). The Secret Lives of Frames: One Hundred Years of Art and Artistry. Filipacchi Publishing. ISBN   978-1-933231-16-7 . Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  3. "Luxist".
  4. Fine Living [ permanent dead link ]
  5. "artnet" . Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  6. Slesin, Suzanne (October 11, 1990). "CURRENTS; Frames Without the Art (Technically, Anyway)". The New York Times. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  7. Month Brings Fairs, Workshops Hartford Courant Jan 12, 2007
  8. "Archived copy" (PDF). Winter Antiques Show. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 14, 2006. Retrieved March 3, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. "IBM" . Retrieved January 13, 2024.