66 
House & Garden 
IF YOU ARE 
GOING TO BUILD 
Consider The Period of 
Your Hardware 
MARY FANTON ROBERTS 
T HE old craftsmen had a way of mak¬ 
ing the essentials of house fittings 
interesting, picturesque, often beauti¬ 
ful. Every article of use, every garment 
worn, in old Japan for instance, was so 
wrought with love and appreciation that 
they became in time actual sources of beau¬ 
ty. It was the French craftsmen, the de¬ 
signers of furniture, the weavers of rugs, 
who made the French periods of decoration 
famous—not the pretty flippant ladies or 
the gallant little kings. In fact, it is the 
craftsmen the world over from Cellini to 
Duncan Phyfe who have woven years into 
epochs, not the politicians or the profes¬ 
sional beauties. 
If you know and treasure iron work— 
whether an ancient grille of Valencia or a 
window latch from an old French palace— 
you will realize how definitely and finely 
both tell the story of their time. How 
(The top three) A Roman¬ 
esque door latch suitable Jor 
a modern concrete structure. 
An Egyptian door knocker of 
fine simplicity with spreading 
vulture wings and Pharaoh 
mask. A substantial and grace¬ 
ful wrought iron design for a 
hinge 
The Colonial bell and door 
knob with graceful scroll elab¬ 
oration in the key plate are 
suited to the more elegant 
type of Colonial house. 
Adapted to wrought iron or 
bronze 
Dutch double doors, of the days when New York 
was called New Amsterdam, were finished with 
wrought iron strap hinges, bolts and thumb latches 
in pure Colonial design. The latches were set on 
the bias jor strength. At the left a detail is given 
of the thumb latch 
representative, for instance, is the sturdy, 
simple Colonial plate of those strong young, 
sincere days of our Republic; how inevit¬ 
ably the Elizabethan door-pull suggests rich 
old Tudor buildings with their dignity and 
fine ornamentation and costly beauty. 
While Chinese craftsmen told pretty tales 
in brass and crystal and jade, and the 
Syrian smiths favored silver, finding its 
delicate beauty more to their taste, in the 
main it is that most sturdy yet most decora¬ 
tive of all metals, iron, in 
which the craftsmen of count¬ 
less generations have wrought 
the history of their times. 
As the quality of our archi¬ 
tecture in this country is im¬ 
proving, becoming more dis¬ 
tinguished, more individually 
(The lower three) A door 
knocker of English 
Gothic influence with the 
typical ecclesiastical de¬ 
sign rather delicate in 
form. Bell and key plate 
of Italian Renaissance 
design 
