Superb iron door lock chiselled, pierced and engraved... Lot 133

Superb iron door lock chiselled, pierced and engraved with the arms of Superintendent Fouquet and attributed to Homer Mourie. 17th century. The palaster presents at the four corners a spandrel finely engraved with an interlacing of scrolls and foliage. In the centre, placed in strong protrusion, the false bottom, an important lion's head maintains in its mouth a garland of foliage which surrounds it completely. The lion's head is very finely chiselled in high relief, the garland in slight relief. Above slides the to-and-fro movement operated by a button chiselled with gadroons. On either side of the lion's mouth, the paleta is engraved with two medallions surrounded by leafy branches and surmounted by a count's crown. One of the medallions has a monogram with inverted, leaning and intersecting F's and the other an armoured shield depicting a squirrel standing and looking at the senestral. The scroll-engraved font is crowned with a frieze of foliated scrolls centred on a grotesque mask under which are engraved the letters HOM. Apart from the end of the bolts all the visible parts of the mechanism are richly chiselled and engraved with a profusion of different decorations: masks, volutes, foliage etc.. The engraved, pierced and chiselled friezes on the back and forth channel are finished with intertwined snakes. The barrel of the lock is drilled with grooved third point. The three sides of the lock as well as the faceplate are finely engraved with fillets finished with flowers and interlacing. The sides are fixed by five screws. This very fine French locksmith's work from the second half of the 17th century is remarkable both for its quality of execution (which suggests that it is most probably a masterpiece) and for its provenance, since it bears the arms of Nicolas Fouquet (1615-1680), Superintendent of Finances of Louis XIV, as well as its figure where the inverted and interlaced Fs draw the Cs of his second wife Marie Madeleine of Castile. The HOM