2 6 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
January, 1914 
By Mary E. Camp 
Photographs by T. C. Turner 
HE selection of an appropriate door-knocker, in 
keeping with the general scheme of architecture, 
has become quite as important as any other orna- 
mental accessory, notwithstanding that its utility 
in recent years has given way to the door bell. 
■ The old designs which are still reproduced in 
brass and iron are of such moderate cost that few new ones have 
found the favor of the old, while only in the question of suita- 
bility and personal preference is one more desirable than the 
other. I he use of the knocker for the door inside the house, 
namely the bedroom, nursery, library doors, etc., has created 
a demand for the old-time knockers of peculiar significance, such 
as the familiar figure of the Lincoln imp with crossed leg, and 
which in its original use was a gargoyle, and the knocker on the 
refectory door of the cathedral in Lincolnshire. 
1 he Durham “devil” is another type of knocker, which in the 
original is still affixed to the cathedral door in Durham, through 
which in Norman times malefactors were admitted to Sanctuary 
and where, after confessing their crimes, they were allowed to 
remain and enjoy the peace and protection of the church. 
The monk’s head is still another type of English knocker re- 
produced from the one on the monastery door of Bury St. 
Edmunds. 
1 he lion's head used on government buildings in England and 
on sentry-boxes in its colonies is a dignified type of knocker 
suited to the door of a city house; while the mermaid, girl dol- 
phin, frog and stork lend themselves appropriately to the bath- 
room, nursery and bedroom doors of country and city houses. 
The Shakespeare knocker, a reproduction of the memorial 
bust at Stratford-on-Avon, is especially adapted for a library or 
study door, as is the weird Buddha and the figure of the monk. 
