Lantern key. (17th century style) The lantern... Lot 128

Lantern key. (17th century style) The lantern key offers the very characteristic and codified decoration of this type of work: a small drilled rod with a very short double bore supporting a very strong bit with a comb and an axe section. An elongated and flattened parallelogram boss whose protruding and domed sides are set with very finely openwork plates. Above, a large truncated cylinder with an openwork rosette on the inside and two grotesque masks carved in high relief protruding from the sides. Above, the ring itself, simulating a lantern with a quadrangular cross-section consisting of a truncated pyramid made of openworked sheet metal surmounted by a wide moulded cornice on which rests a four-sided domed roof, also openworked with volutes. The whole is topped by a very small aedicula with four columns, which was itself finished, or by a small baluster or a bélière (missing). A long balustered stem is placed inside the lantern. Iron turned, chiselled, pierced, openwork, slightly engraved. 19th century. Height: 11.5 cm Provenance: Sale Spitzer, 1893, n°910 (reproduced). Reference: La fidèle ouverture ou l'art du serrurier, Rouen 2007, n°208 in the exhibition catalogue p. 202. The key, Gabriele Mandel, Ars Mundi, 1992, n°136, p. 58.