Arabic Picture Frames: A Guide to Islamic Frame Design
Framing Islamic art, Arabic calligraphy or a Middle Eastern textile in a European swept frame rarely works. The visual languages pull against each other, carved acanthus and rococo scrollwork belong to a different tradition entirely.
Arabic frame design draws instead on geometry, calligraphic form and architectural ornament. Campbell's of London holds one of the few dedicated collections of Arabic frames in the UK, with 36 profiles made by hand from our South Kensington studio.
What Makes an Arabic Frame Different
Three things separate this tradition from European framing.
- Calligraphic ornament: Where a European frame carries leaves and flowers, an Arabic frame may carry script forms worked into the moulding itself. The frame continues the language of the artwork rather than contrasting with it.
- Geometry over figuration: Islamic decorative tradition generates pattern from mathematical relationships - interlacing, repetition, tessellation. The result reads as ordered rather than organic.
- Panel construction: Wide, flat or reverse-sloped profiles give an architectural presence drawn from screens, doorways and tilework rather than from furniture.
Six Frames Worth Knowing
- Gulf Panel is the widest frame in the collection at 150mm, with a 50mm depth and a reverse-slope profile. It is a statement frame, suited to large works, textiles and pieces that need to hold a wall on their own.
- Bahara Link runs 125mm wide with a 60mm depth and a 40mm rebate - the deepest in the collection. That rebate makes it one of the few profiles here capable of taking a canvas on a stretcher, or a deep-mounted work on paper.
- Crescent is 132mm wide with a reverse-slope profile, angling back from the artwork so the eye is drawn inward. Effective on smaller works that need presence.
- Minaret Calligraphic is a 64mm scoop profile - the most obviously calligraphic frame in the range, and the natural choice for Arabic script, Qur'anic verses and contemporary calligraphy.
- Mirbat Calligraphy is 65mm with a spoon profile and a 34mm depth. Similar in scale to Minaret but with a softer curve, suiting works that need warmth rather than formality.
- Beauchamp Fret is a 90mm flat profile with repeating carved geometric ornament in the classical fret tradition. Suited to contemporary interiors where a fully gilded ornate frame would sit awkwardly.
Narrower Options
Not every piece calls for a wide frame. Three narrower profiles work well on smaller or more delicate works:
- Doha Gilded: 90mm cushion profile, a rounded face that softens the transition from wall to artwork
- Nabar Special Bahara: 48mm flat profile, restrained and suited to works on paper
- Athena: 54mm scoop, 42mm deep, useful where depth is needed without width
Gilding
Thirty-three of the thirty-six frames in this collection are gilded, and the process is the same one we use for our European work: multiple layers of gesso, careful sanding between coats, clay bole preparation, traditional water gilding in real leaf, then hand burnishing.
That depth and warmth is what separates genuine water gilding from a metallic finish. It also means the frame can be re-gilded decades later rather than replaced -
see our frame restoration service.
Choosing the Right Profile
Three practical questions narrow it down quickly.
- How big is the artwork?
- How deep does the rebate need to be?
- What is the interior like?
As a rough guide, a piece under 40cm suits a 45-65mm profile. Between 40cm and 1m, 90-125mm works. Above that, 125mm and wider holds the scale.
A work on paper with a mount and glazing needs 12mm or more. A stretched canvas needs 30mm or more, which points to Bahara Link at 40mm or Rondo Modified at 35mm.
Traditional rooms carry the wider gilded panels comfortably. Contemporary spaces usually suit narrower profiles or the carved detail of Beauchamp Fret.
What These Frames Suit
- Arabic calligraphy: Minaret Calligraphic and Mirbat Calligraphy are made for it
- Islamic and Middle Eastern art: geometric ornament that reads as continuous with the work
- Textiles and carpets: the wide panel profiles carry weight and scale
- Photography of the region: a frame that places the image culturally
- Contemporary work in traditional interiors: geometry bridges both
Made to Measure in South Kensington
Every frame in this collection is made to order. Profiles can be produced at any size, and where a piece needs protection we specify UV-filtering glazing and archival mounts alongside the frame.
The full range is at our studio, 35 Thurloe Street, directly opposite South Kensington Underground station. Bring the artwork in and we will show you the profiles against it, or request a quotation online.
