Victorian Rococo Revival Gilt Metal Easel Frame with Cabinet Card Portrait of a Couple, c. 1890s

Large antique gilt cast metal easel frame in the Rococo Revival style, with a shell crest, trailing flower and leaf garlands, lattice panels, and scrolled feet, c. 1890s to 1900s. Holds a cabinet card portrait of a husband and wife: a seated gentleman with a handlebar mustache and watch chain beside a standing lady in a high necked dark dress with full puffed sleeves, a fashion that dates the photograph to the 1890s. Cabinet cards were the fashionable studio portraits of the late Victorian era, displayed proudly in parlors in frames just like this one.