17.5cm (7in) x 19.5cm (7.6in)
Cast iron. A Waterloo victory door knocker in the form of Wellington's hand grasping his field marshal's baton from which a wreath of laurel leaves is suspended, with the hand acting as the pivot point, allowing visitors to swing the laurel wreath up and down. Manufactured by the London ironmonger and warehouseman David Bray, Cranbourn Street, Soho.
The Wellington door knocker was originally marketed to commemorate the Allied victory of 1814 and no doubt coincided with the visit to England of the allied sovereigns of Russia, Prussia, Sweden and several German states that summer. After the final defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, the ironmonger Bray was keen to emphasize the British contribution to the coalition, telling would-be punters ‘every knock brings home to the bosom the recollection of the heroic deeds achieved at Waterloo, and the final downfal [sic] of the enemy of the rights and liberties of mankind?’
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The Wellington door knocker was a hit and Bray a beneficiary of the wave of national pride that swept the country following Waterloo. An advert in the Morning Post proclaimed it as ‘… one of the most ingenious and pleasing inventions of the present day’ and admitted ‘129 Available in Brass, Bronzed, or Japan’. The knocker seems to have made Bray's name, as advertisements for unrelated products noted that his 'much admired Wellington Door Knocker' could be had at the same address.