Ring-style door knocker with backplate
Central Europe, first half of 16th century
Malleable iron. Square bar wrought into a heart with a pierced trefoil in the centre point. Openwork backplate with a cross and bulbous centre. Decorated with grooving.
H: 8.5 cm / W: 12.5 cm
UMP 3168
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 were often hammered out at the centre, which might have been decorated with pierced trefoils or quatrefoils or with repoussage and an openwork band. In the Late Gothic period, plaited branches, snakes, and 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.