It's enticing to believe that distinct aesthetic schools start (and stop) on a particular day in history. For example, that the Renaissance ended one morning and Mannerism began that same afternoon. But artistic movements—and the human artists who create them—don't stick to hard-and-fast timetables. Elements of one movement (say, the Aesthetic Movement) still may be visible in the next school of design (say, the Arts & Crafts). Humans—including artists (especially artists)—are often driven by their own creative wills and temporal needs, not the precisely regimented timetables of academicians who will follow in later years (or centuries). It is also true that one nice antiquity may have the "visual genetics" of two or more aesthetic schools (to successful or unsuccessful effect). The convenient adjective to apply to such mongrel hybrids is "Transitional"—referring to an item which straddles two successive aesthetic schools. And let's not be snobby; many mongrels are wonderful (and enduring).
The period "between the wars"—from the end of World War One (1918) to the start of World War Two (1941, for America)—was a period of great change in America. The country's middle class (with discretionary income) was growing (for some). More middle class women entered the paid workforce and all women won their legal right to vote. And the nation's elites enjoyed an economic boom in the Twenties, only to be followed by economic collapse in the Thirties (which devastated everyone).
Aesthetically, the Art Nouveau Movement (which includes the Arts & Crafts Movement) was mostly finished with the end of World War One (though, remember, touches of its aesthetic vocabulary occasionally might be utilized well past that date). Temperamentally, the world was ready for something new. The Art Deco was just what the world wanted: fresh, futuristic, fast! Art Deco offered a promise of Bright Modernity. And it was enormously popular—informing everything from toasters to light switches, electrical plugs to auto tail fins.
Some items don't fall into clear aesthetic classification, including some made between the wars. Consider the frame above, made during the Twenties or Thirties. It does not lean-into the prevailing Art Deco aesthetic. I speculate that this frame was produced, between the wars, for a growing middle class which wanted something nice—perhaps something classic or traditional— to commemorate the photo of someone special. Even today, at approximately 100 years old, the frame enjoys a handsome and timeless sensibility—and it still stands-ready to hold a special picture of a special someone. Click on the photo above to learn more about it.
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