As a student of architecture and art history for six years in the 1960s, the author recognized the vast imbalance between the history of art and the history of frames. In art history books and exhibition catalogues the frame was cropped from nearly every picture, and the literature on frames themselves was virtually non-existent. The frame was trapped in a no man's land between the fine and decorative arts - and yet it so patently belongs to both.

In order to study the subject systematically the author started a photographic archive, recording pictures in what appeared to be original or contemporary frames in the main museums, galleries, private collections and major exhibitions throughout Europe, North America and Canada. By assembling this huge 'jig-saw'it has been possible to identify the principal and subsidiary frame patterns which have evolved since the early Renaissance, recognize their characteristics and generally determine their originality - or otherwise - to their pictures. 

These ongoing records, together with a study of architectural settings, furniture and related decorative arts, make it possible to identify and clarify the prevailing national and regional frame styles which were originally applied to a given artist’s work at a certain period. The results of this exhaustive study, made in collaboration with the frame historian Lynn Roberts, were published in 1996 as The History of European Picture Frames (a re-print of 'The Frame' article written for the Macmillan Dictionary of Art) and FRAMEWORKS: Form, Function and Ornament in European Portrait Frames. The latter accompanied the first ever exhibition of frames held by a public gallery in Britain, The Art of the Picture Frame at the National Portrait Gallery, London, 1996-97. [See publications].

Research into the history of frames has thus taken a great leap forward from previous landmarks (see bibliography), established by Claus Grimm’s survey in 1978, The Book of Picture Frames, and by six successive exhibitions over two decades: at the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, 1976; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1984; Art Institute of Chicago, 1986; Musée d’Orsay, Paris, 1989; Metropolitan Museum, New York, 1990; Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam/Kunstforum, Vienna, 1995.