December, 1908 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



467 



Head of Daphne 



Phoenix_,type 



Tiger design 



Eagle knocker 



a certain fine individuality about this article, and we find 

 few duplicates of even the most admirable specimens. Hav- 

 ing found a suitable copy, however, it is not at all difficult 

 to have it reproduced. Present day manufacturers make a 

 variety of brass knockers, whose only defect is that brass 

 requires so much polishing. These artisans will repro- 

 duce or adapt patterns in brass at prices ranging from 

 three dollars to fifteen, according to size and style. 



Of course, these modern articles are wholly lacking in 

 that historic element so dear to the hearts of collectors and 

 antiquarians, unless the new ornament has been copied from 

 some model which possesses special interest for the pros- 

 pective owner. For my own part, I should investigate the 

 nearest antique shop before having a knocker made; for 

 I know to a certainty that fine examples of genuine colonial 

 door-knockers can often be obtained in such places at a 

 figure astonishing low. In fact, they are less expensive 

 than the modern reproductions; for antique brass specimens 



can be bought for two dollars or more, and an excellent 

 iron one for a dollar and a half. Very large and elaborate 

 old-time knockers can be purchased for five dollars. This 

 is not because their true value is not known, but because 

 there is, as yet, comparatively little demand for them. 

 Where a person could use twenty candlesticks, she could use, 

 at the most, not more than two knockers, perhaps not more 

 than one. 



The horseshoe knocker has been already mentioned as 

 a typical example of the hammer class. Like all truly colo- 

 nial specimens, it is made of wrought iron, painfully ham- 

 mered out by hand upon the forge, as even nails had to 

 be hammered out, in the colonies, in the absence of ma- 

 chinery for working iron. This is one of the most quaint 

 and original knockers that I have ever seen, and is on the 

 style of the earliest made. They soon became more elabor- 

 ate, and colonial craftsmen bestowed upon them their high- 

 est skill. Among the more elaborate were purely Greek or 



Lion design 



A Georgian type 



Horseshoe knocker 



