I often say that what we’re offering is the simple home for pictures. The simple home ideal was practiced and advocated by Bernard Maybeck and Charles Keeler here in Berkeley, and shaped much of the city’s early architecture. I take it to express the principles of vernacular, or folk, domestic architecture, and thus to point to a vast and rich well of design inspiration for frame making.
In the Japan, the traditional house, called a Minka, is an exemplary simple home. Minkas are a favorite subject of artist Hiroto Norikane (b. 1949), who made this etching. The frame we designed for it is just a No. 1, our plainest mitered frame, but with proud splines shaped with the gentle curve characteristic of the roof lines of these wonderful folk structures. I think I’ll call this frame “The Minka.” (At right: two Minka corner samples, one walnut and one cherry, ready to finish.)
This isn’t the first print we’ve made this design for. Here’s a Kawase Hasui woodblock of a row of cozy minkas lining a village street on a rainy night (more on this one in the Portfolio)…
…and a little nineteenth century street scene by Inoue Yasuji:
A Gallery of Hiroto Norikane’s Minkas—
Here’s a sampling of printmaker Hiroto Norikane’s depictions of minkas. These are all from the artist’s page at Panteek Antique Prints.
More on the Minka frame—
The Minka frame can be made in any width and in any wood and stain. Here’s a 3/4″ wide corner sample in walnut stained black (with India ink). The two in the background are 1″ and 3/4″ wide in walnut with Black Wash. 