Copyright (c) 2013 Mathew Jenkins
During the late seventeenth century door furniture received a great impetus, no doubt from the immigration of foreign craftsmen such as Tijou, and the dominant French influence under William III. In France the art of the locksmith had been especially esteemed and encouraged. "For several centuries admission to the Guild of Locksmiths could only be obtained by the production of a piece de ifaitrise or chef d'wuzv-e, which took the form of a lock or key upon which one or two years' labour might be expended," and the door fittings of the Gallery d'Apollon were not considered beneath the notice of Le Brun. To this foreign stimulus was due the late reformation and improvement "that Evelyn speaks of in our locksmiths' work . . . who can "produce Works as curious for the filing,-, and admirable for their Dexterity in Contriving as any we meet with abroad; and in particular to our Smiths and Joyners they Excell all other nations whatever."
Before 1660 stock locks were a luxury. They were kept "in the closet," according to the Claydon inventory, and in 1680, when the same London house was to let, it is mentioned that, as the doors were so injured by the putting off and on of locks, they might as well be left on permanently. A fine lock was noticed by Evelyn at Broad Hinton as early as 1654, as an exception "for its filing and rare contrivances a masterpiece, yet made by a country blacksmith," while not many years after there was nothing more frequent, he writes, than "all sorts of iron-work more exquisitely wrought and polished than in any part of Europe, so as a door lock of a tolerable price was esteemed a curiosity even among foreign princes." Under William III, the escutcheons and key-plates of furniture and door fittings began to be treated with even greater elaboration and fancy. King William seems to have taken a special interest in door locks, for at Knole there is a set known to have been presented by him to the Earl of Dorset, and similar locks are found at de Voorst in Holland, which he built for the first Lord Albemarle, and at Zuylestein. Talman probably reflect the taste of his royal master, as we find him (in 1699) showing his anxiety that the locks of the state apartments at Hampton Court " might answer ye rest of ye finishing" and the locks in this room are quite equal in perfection of finish and in the design of the brass-work to those of his protégé, Josiah Key, at Hampton Court. His letter compares the rival merits of Key, "the most ingenious man in Europe," and "Greenaway, his Mat' Locksmith by Warrant," who is "a very dull Smith not brought up to that trade, but of late yeares has taken it up." . . "There is as much difference between the two men in their Art, as between Vulcan and Venus." Talman was successful in recommending his protégé, "the most ingenious man in Europe," for in 1699, Josiah Key, smith, was entered as debtor for work done at Hampton Court to the amount of £800 And Key does not stand alone. There is in the Victoria and Albert Museum a fine iron lock of steel in a brass case, pierced and engraved with floral sprays, the border filled in with leaf ornament, the knobs ribbed, which is signed " Johannes Wilkes de Birmingham fecit," and exactly similar locks, also signed by Wilkes, are at Arbury, in Warwickshire, while the example from Dyrham is of the same high quality.
Box locks of the early eighteenth century are simpler and without the chasing which renders the illustrated examples so attractive. A drop handle often took the place of the knob. To this simple utilitarian pattern Robert Adam introduced a complete change. At this time for the box lock was substituted the mortise lock, and Adam's designs and doors show a handle plate on which the door knob is united to the keyhole by a scroll design in brass, evidently influenced by French designs for handle plates such as those published by Lalonde, a designer of the Louis XVI. Period.
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