Knocker, door knocker

Cast iron lion's head front door knocker. Originally japanned, the black paint has now partly worn away.

In an article in Sketches by Boz entitled 'Our Next-door Neighbour' Charles Dickens speculates on the type of residents who chose lions head knockers for their front doors '..there is one description of knocker that used to be common enough, but which is fast passing away' he wrote 'a large round one, with the jolly face of a convivial lion smiling blandly at you...we never saw that knocker on the door of a churlish man—so far as our experience is concerned, it invariably bespoke hospitality and another bottle. No man ever saw this knocker on the door of a small attorney or bill-broker; they always patronise the other lion; a heavy ferocious-looking fellow, with a countenance expressive of savage stupidity—a sort of grand master among the knockers, and a great favourite with the selfish and brutal.'