Hands on Art
Walk nearly any block and if you are a mind to take notice of the doors and their door knobs as you pass. Generally speaking they are a bland lot: a bit of chrome, a strip of brass perhaps but for the most part nothing sets one aside from the other. Every so often, though, there is something to prompt a second look. In the photo you can see such a device.
It isn’t that it’s a remarkable piece of engineering for it operates on the same basic principles, put in a key and turn it then turn the knob and walk inside then repeat. What sets it apart is its design.
It is of another era of course, you can tell that by the patina on the metal but what sets it apart for sure is the design of it.
The knob itself shows an attention to artistic design while providing an opportunity for a better grip. The back plate that is actually attached to the door itself shows just plain good artistic design. This is a piece of art that happens to hang in a unique showroom.
How many have come to this home since it was built and taken for granted this interesting piece? How many have not noticed that fewer and fewer of them remain to be seen?
Pity when you think about it that they can seldom be found these days; like everything else they’ve been replaced by the new, modern, streamlined design that carries the promise of the future. That’s all well and good for things do move one but the past had its merits sometimes in the most common, ordinary things of life.
The common ordinary things of life you find one day are gone.