Ring-style door knocker
Pilsen(?), Bohemia, early 16th century
Malleable iron bar widening in the centre into a flame-shaped bulge decorated with a knob and an openwork band along the perimeter, tapering at the ends into dragonhead finials which pass through the eye of a square peg.
W: 15 cm
UMP 3065
Door knockers were available in a diverse variety of shapes. Square and round iron bars could be cold-formed or forged at blacksmiths’ workshops. Bars forged into heart or oval shapes often flared at the centre, which was then decorated with pierced trefoils or quatrefoils or fashioned into a flame-shaped bulge with an openwork band. In the Late Gothic period, snakes, plaited branches, or lizards were used as forms for ring-shaped door knockers. Ring mounts and hammers were often decorated with forged animal heads, usually stags or ibexes with curled horns, but sometimes also wild man masks.