Antique Door Hardware
Loose fittings taken off doors and sold on their own or in matched pairs: knobs, knockers, bell pulls and the odd bolt or chain, the working furniture of a front door.
Antique Door Hardware
These are individual items of hardware rather than complete locksets or fitted suites of door furniture. A knob on its own, a pair of knobs, a knocker, a bell pull. Brass is close to a default, named in 22 of 28 titles on Sellingantiques, with bronze the only other metal that recurs, and one pair of knobs pairing brass with wood.
The single largest strand is the centre door knob: the big knob fixed mid-panel on a front door, meant to be pulled rather than turned. Eight titles use the term, and the form turns up in Georgian, Regency, Victorian and Edwardian dress. Shapes get named with some precision, ovular, oval, octagonal and beehive among them.
After that come pairs of knobs for a door lock, then knockers, where the patterns run from the conventional lion mask to a ram's head, a laurel wreath and the Maltese dolphin, which appears twice. Bell pulls make up a smaller strand. A night chain, a Gothic bolt and a pair of Chinese bronze Foo dog door plates each appear once.
Dating is mostly a period label rather than a datable piece. The dealers' own dating is Victorian in 17 of 28 listings, with 19th Century and Georgian behind it, and only two listings carry a clean year. Cast and wrought door furniture was made for domestic doors long before that, but the mass of loose survivors comes from the brass-founding trade of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Where The Range Sits
Modelling does most of the work. The pieces asking the most are figural or sculptural, a laurel-wreath bronze knocker and the pair of Chinese Foo dog door plates among them, while plain undescribed brass knobs sit at the bottom of the range. A named pattern, whether Maltese dolphin, lion mask, ram's head, Gothic or beehive, reliably sits above an unnamed one.
Metal follows the same line. The bronze listings, the octagonal centre pulls, the Continental knocker, the Foo dog plates, all fall in the upper half, and the brass knobs occupy the lower. Size counts too: "Large" appears in four titles and all four sit high in the range.
Completeness is called out where it exists. One knocker is offered with its striking plate, another simply as complete, one bell pull as fully restored. Accessory parts and working order get named in the description when they are there, and a fitting sold whole reads differently from a fitting sold as a fragment of a set.
Antique Door Hardware Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for door hardware, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Knocker patterns on Sellingantiques run from the lion mask to a ram's head, a laurel wreath and the Maltese dolphin, which has turned up twice.
The Antique Door Hardware Glossary
- Centre door knob
- A single large knob fixed to the middle of a front door as a pull, not a turning handle. Eight titles use the term, making it the biggest strand here.
- Bell pull
- The handle, usually on a backplate, that worked a mechanical door bell by wire. Four listings, two Georgian and two Victorian.
- Beehive knob
- A knob with horizontal ribbed banding rising to a domed top, named for its likeness to a straw skep. Spelled both "Beehive" and "Bee Hive" in titles.
- Striking plate
- The plate fixed beneath a knocker for the hammer to strike against. Named in one knocker title, and its presence is worth noting in a description.
- Doctor's knocker
- A large plain ring or hoop knocker, the type traditionally linked with a physician's door.
- Ovular
- A dealer's term used in these titles for an egg- or oval-sectioned knob, sitting alongside oval and octagonal as shape descriptions.
Antique Door Hardware: Frequently Asked Questions
What is a centre door knob for?
It sits in the middle of a front door panel and acts as a pull. The door was pulled shut against it rather than opened by turning it.
It is the largest single strand in this category, appearing in eight titles and across Georgian, Regency, Victorian and Edwardian listings.
Is brass or bronze more common?
Brass, by a wide margin. It is named in 22 of the 28 titles, and bronze is the only other metal that recurs.
The bronze pieces tend to be the knockers, a centre knob and the Chinese door plates. They cluster in the upper half of the range.
How are these pieces dated?
Almost always by period label. Victorian covers 17 of the 28 listings, with 19th Century and Georgian behind it and single examples of Regency, Edwardian and the 1940s.
Only two listings carry a clean year. One title reads "19th century style", which describes the pattern rather than the date.
What knocker patterns turn up?
The lion mask is the conventional one. Beyond it, the listings carry a ram's head, a laurel wreath, a Continental bronze example and a doctor's knocker.
The Maltese dolphin, a stylised dolphin form associated with Malta, appears twice.
Are knobs sold singly or in pairs?
Both. Centre door knobs are single by nature, since only one was fitted to a front door.
Rim and mortice knobs came in pairs for a lock, and five titles specify a pair or two pairs, including brass, brass and wood, beehive and oval Arts and Crafts examples.
Do bolts and chains appear in this category?
Rarely. A night door chain, which lets a door open a few inches only, appears once. A Gothic bolt appears once.
The category is otherwise knobs, knockers and bell pulls, with around eight pieces coming to market on Sellingantiques in a year across seven dealers.