No grander specimen has been produced than the lock-plate,
eighteen inches high,^taken from the Church of Maria-Saal, in
Carinthia, now preserved in the Klagenfurt Museum. From its
unusual size and elaborate character, it is regarded as having
been a diploma work (Fig. 48).
It is only, however, when traceried designs began to develop
into something else that they become of interest. At Cologne,
celebrated as a cradle of art, and with so much in common with.
THE AGE OF THE LOCKSMITH. 133

and united by such close ties to, the trading cities of Flanders, the
Brabangon ironwork roused a strong spirit of emulation. Thus
it is at Cologne that we meet with one of those massive forged
iron cranes for raising the font-cover, which are otherwise wholly
peculiar to Belgium. Its simple triangular form filled with feeble
vesica tracery, and its unnecessary and defective mechanism, pro-



Fic. 48.— Lock, eighteen inches high. In the Klagenfurt Museum. Fifteenth century.
claim it the effort of a 'prentice hand. Then we have, diverging
more and more from the Flemish style, the curious rastellum, a
light traceried railing with fleur-de-lis cresting, and five prickets
for candles and five shields emblasoned with tailors' shears.
This is supported on a rafter most exquisitely painted with
figure-subjects after the Cologne school, while the ironwork is



134 IRON.
