Get your knockers out...

Here’s the fourth ‘right under your nose’ thing:

No4: Door Knockers

For some reason I’m not counting manhole covers as a ‘right under your nose’ thing, perhaps because they are right under your feet rather than under your nose – or perhaps I just forgot.

And… sorry about the title of this post, but there are those amongst you (Number 2) who are huge fans of the ‘Carry On’ film genre and as it was such an obvious titillation, I simply couldn’t resist it.

And… two for one tonight, there’s another post, ‘A nice pear’, below this. No, they’re not connected - but I may not be able to post easily for the next couple of weeks so I thought that I’d treat you.
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I love door knockers, they are so decorative. A door knocker can be used to express the personality of whomever lives behind the door, they are so varied, so quirky, idiosyncratic even.

Sometimes I look at a knocker and try to imagine the person who owns it – does a retired sea captain own that anchor knocker? A once dashing RAF pilot that spitfire? What about the rose, the scroll, the feather, that horse’s head (the card on the bell says D. Corleone)… and who on earth lives in that house with the bat knocker?

Door knockers have been around, except for short periods during the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, since their invention, so probably since the knocking together of the first door.

(click to see these lovely knockers in there full glory at a larger size and in detail)

They were most popular and prized during the Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance periods and can be divided into three clear types, the ring, the hammer, and the ornate - human figures, animals' heads, and anything else that you can dream of.

Medieval door knockers were functional but very carefully designed; the Renaissance produced fanciful and imaginative knockers. Early knockers were made by artists and smithy-craftsmen; with mainly iron being used in construction - partly on account of its inexpensiveness. Despite the baseness of the metal the resulting knockers are both artistic and beautiful, further enriched, I feel, by the rust of age that often encrusts them. Later, brass came into favour and remains the most frequently used knocker material, as none better has been found. I have seen knockers in stainless steel, but I can’t say that I’m a huge fan – pewter looks good though - stainless steel doesn’t age and tarnish easily, and I think that a knocker with a few knocks to its name is so much more knockable.

The lion with ring has always been popular, other popular knockers include hands, fish, nymphs, mermaids, dolphins, and ribbons - their variety is infinite. I photographed the three knockers in the lead montage above in Beaumaris at the week-end; all within a couple of minutes walk of each other. I had to walk up the paths and right up to the doors to get them, I wonder what I’d have said if someone had come to the door whilst I was taking the photographs:
‘Excuse me, do you mind if I take a photograph of your knockers’?
Arf, arf, arf - (just for you Number 2, just for you).

And what does my door knocker look like? well, here it is.

‘Celebrity - Get your knockers Out’ Competition…

Recognise the three knockers below? Just tell WAWL where are they to be found and you could win! Go on have a go…no prize, but you can glory in the knowledge that you will be named in a special post on WAWL. The answers will be revealed in the comment box of this post on Friday – so you have a couple of days. Go on and have a guess – no cheating though. You can leave your answers in the comments section of this post. Good luck!

Don't forget tonight's second post 'A nice pear...' below