Baroque style Door hardware - 18th Century

Wrought-iron Mastery or Wedding Key – Louis XIV / Regency period
PERIOD: End of the 17th century – Beginning of the 18th century (circa 1700).
MATERIAL: Wrought iron, worked with file and chisel.

• Ring (Head): Superb openwork decoration featuring a central inverted heart motif (or 'carp snout') set within an architecture of symmetrical scrolls. Exquisite cutting work, typical of prestige art-forging metalwork productions.
• Shank (Barrel): Round shank with a female (hollow) barrel, displaying a beautiful original black patina known as 'excavation' or cabinet patina, not stripped.
• Hasps: Richly cut with complex pierced openings in the shape of a cross and a comb, bearing witness to an elaborate fittings lock. Base of the hasp reinforced.
State of preservation:
Nice condition for an object of its time. Surface oxidation stabilized.