Nowadays, this locomotive knob is a quaint and rather cute representation of how life used to be like in the olden days. It seems perfectly logical to have it on a door knob – sure it is unusual, but it also creates a traditional sort of character for a house. There are plenty of people that put antiques through their homes for this very reason (we happen to know a few of them!), and if you can’t put an actual steam engine in your living room, why not have the next best thing – a picture of one on your door knob.

But if you think about the knob in the context of when it was minted, this would have been quite a modern train. Then I began thinking, what would a modern train look like on a door knob in the modern world? I don’t know what trains look like where you come from, but where I live they are certainly not built for looks! Then, what other modern sorts of things would you put on a door knob? A computer? Not really photogenic … Mobile phones are almost as bad. CDs and DVDs are not very interesting (although perhaps that is what they were trying to represent in all of those concentric design Regency and Victorian door knobs! They had a vision of the future, and the future was CDs… !) Electrical plugs, modern cars (with the exception of anything made by Corvette), skyscrapers, plastic bags … none really have that je ne sais quois that you need for an elegant door knob, do they?

We do welcome suggestions for modern items to immortalise on door knobs, though!

Photo credits: AntiqueDoorknobs.org

          

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