Green’s Dictionary of Slang

sheriff’s picture frame n.

the gallows or pillory.

1673		M. Stevenson Norfolk Drollery 65: Pox of their Pictures, if we had ’um here, / We’d find ’um frames at Tyburn.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795) n.p.: picture frame the gallows, or pillory.
1791		H. Lemoine ‘Education’ in Attic Misc. 116: All in the sheriff’s picture frame they call / Exalted high, Dick parted with his flame, / And all his comrades swore that he dy’d game.
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1824		‘Sonnets for the Fancy’ in Egan Boxiana III 622: [as 1791].
1833		‘Dick Hellfinch’ in Rummy Cove’s Delight in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 105: [as 1791].
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 25: Picture frame – the gallows or pillory.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1892		Oakleigh Leader (Nth Brighton, Vic.) 3 Sept. 45/5: ‘The sheriff’s picture frame’ is a euphemistic description of the gallows.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 144: Picture Frame.–The gallows, another euphemism, and originally, in English slang, ‘the Sheriff’s picture frame.’.

In phrases

dangle in the sheriff’s picture-frame (v.)

to be hanged.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: I shall see you dangle in the sheriff’s picture-frame; I shall see you hanging on the gallows.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

nab the picture-frame (v.)

(UK Und.) to be executed by hanging.

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.