source: ThePreservationStation.com
This Week’s Theme: Door Knobs
I found this late 19th century beauty at The Preservation Station site. It’s an antique Aesthetic Movement cast bronze Eastlake door knob. Even the back of the knob is intricately detailed with a bead and fan pattern. Who ever pays attention to the back sides of anything anymore? { sigh }
About Eastlake from Eastlake Antique Hardware:
The Eastlake Era (1870-1900) was during the latter half of the Victorian Era. Charles Eastlake was a British architect, who in 1868 wrote a book called “Hints on Household Taste”. This book swept through the UK and North America. His designs were a breakaway from the flowing, almost over-frilly patterns of the time. He favored a what I would describe as a clean, geometric, organic feel. Eastlake based designs are Naturalistic, and often based on Asian, Indian or Arabic motifs. There are clean lines and very simple flowers, leaves, stems and vines. There is symmetry, as well as asymmetry in the designs, with great detail and attraction put into each pattern.
…Then, in 1870, the technology of Compression Casting appeared. This hugely changed the quality and detail that an engraver could impart onto his work. Sand was changed to fine potters clay, and the molten metal was injected under pressure using a piston and cylinder. The craftsmanship for fine ornamentation became incredible, and no “vintage reproduction” of today can compare. From that era there are easily over 1000 different designs of door knobs…it was knob mania. But, when WW2 came, a huge number of bronze and brass knobs and plates were turned over the the government to made into bullet casings. So, here we are today, trying to be good stewards of the works of the designers and craftsman of that era.
Inspiration for Today
“I understood right from the start that every set of library doors were the sort of magic portals that lead to other lands. My God, right within reach there were dinosaurs and planets and presidents and girl detectives!” ~Deb Caletti
Happy Coloring!
joyfully, Maureen
www.TheMandalaLady.com
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