STORY OF DOOR-KNOCKERS.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17692, 19 February 1923, Page 2

STORY OF DOOR-KNOCKERS.

I wonder how many Londoners realise what en interesting study may be made of the old door-knockers which abound in oui streets? says F.S. in the London "Evening News." On the door of Lord Aberdare's house, 83 Eaton square, is a bronze knocker in the form of Neptune rising from the sea, said to have been the work of Benvenuto Cellini. There is a knocker in the form of n single dolphin at 57 Curzon street, Mayfair ; and Connaught Place, to the north of Hyde Park, has some good specimens. At No. 2 are some old pattern bronze dolphin knockers, and at No. 8 is a silver knocker that has a ribbon scroll and a circlet of acanthui. A mermaid knocker may bo «e»n at 25 Queen Anne's Gate, a good example is at 24 Cheyna Row, Chelsea, where Csrly'r once lived; and a rare knocker copied from a Roman mask, may be found at 34 Grove End road, St. John's Wood, a house that was once the home of the late Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema. But the finest knocker." in the West End hang on the grand old wooden gates, once the entrance of Devonshire House, which are now planted in an i^n'-Vd—and (noteless on the ed°" of Green Pa-rik. Then there is an old knocker in the shape of a clasped hand at 17 Gough qua.re, off Fleet street, once thp residence of Dr. Johnson; and another good specimen can be found hard by in Gunpowder Alley.