This time of year is all about nostalgia and connecting with the past, so consider including old photos in vintage frames as part of your decor, on the mantel, buffet or occasional tables.

Photos were such a novelty to the Victorians that they had picture frame tables just to display them. Baby pictures of relatives and guests are sure-fire conversation pieces.
Also consider old frames as holiday gifts, party favors, or as a hostess gift. Of course, you can by new frames, but, as with so many things, if you want it to be unique, it has to be an antique.
If you don’t own many old frames that you can dig up and clean up, the local antique shops can oblige. You might not notice them at first, because they’re currently featuring some old print or mirror. You’ll have to imagine what you think should be in them.
Just a few examples of some frames you can easily find in the shops include the following:
Eastlake shadow box frames are deep frames in walnut wood. From the late 19th Century, they look like frames within frames, and often feature layers of gilding, ebonizing and other techniques.
Folk art and tramp art frames look very hand-made. Popular in the early 20th Century, some will include applied hand-carved detail like oak or maple leaves.
An old Italian technique, called “micro-mosaic” features tiny pieces of enamel arranged in a decorative design like a mosaic. Most of the frames you will find in today’s shops are from the mid-20th Century.
Glass frames with convex glass were popular ways to display those often grim-faced, but charming ancestral photos. It’s the curved glass that makes them valuable.
Frame facts: Framing traces its origin back well over 3,000 years to the borders around narrative scenes on the vases and tombs of ancient Greece and Egypt.
In Medieval Europe, the Church adapted the technique to narrate stories from the Gospels on two and three panel works called diptychs and triptychs and larger multi-panel altar pieces. Perhaps the most well-known framed narrative is the Stations of the Cross.
By the Renaissance, the aristocracy, especially is Italy, and particularly in Florence, adapted the idea of using framed narrative to enhance their reputation and that of their ancestors. Instead of depictions of the saints, frames were more likely to contain portraits of the Medicis.
The “cassetta,”€ or little case is among the earliest Italian frames. It is a wooded box-like thing that is highly carved and often gilt gesso (an artist’s plaster, originally made of crushed eggshells and applied to a surface because it held paint better than the wood).
“Mannerist” frames of late 16th and 17th Centuries lost the boxy look and featured edges carved in irregular shape. Later, the “Florentine” frame would feature gilt wood and gesso in an elaborate and labor-intensive carved open-work frame in gilt wood and gesso.
Appraisals: Oval brass w/convex glass, ca.1900 ($300); Pair, cast brass, openwork, 8'x10", Victorian ($225); Micro-Mosaic, 3-1/2"x5", 1930s ($150); Eastlake shadow box, walnut w/ebonizing, faux tortoise, etched gilding, oval, 9' x 11" ($300). Many Eastlake frames can still be found in the $75 to $225 range, depending on size and decoration.

Arthur Schwerdt, a certified appraiser, is co-owner of The August Farmhouse Antiques, and author of “The Antique Story Book: Finding the Real Value of Old Things.”