Forget bells and intercoms – this month’s CBBH Photo Challenge is all about decorative door furniture, to make an entrance look perfect.
Of course, the purpose of a door knocker is to let the householder know there is someone at the door, but at some point in history they took on shape and symbolic meaning. I’ve seen protective dogs and lions, honorary wreaths, severed hands, mythological references to Medusa and Cleopatra, as well as elegant and ornate displays of wealth in polished brass.
There are some really interesting knobs and knockers out there, just waiting to be discovered and photographed. CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOURS!
SPOILER: SCROLL DOWN FOR DETAILS OF HOW TO GET MY $25 THANK YOU GIFT – FOR EACH ONE OF YOU!
I photographed this beauty in the Spanish city of Toledo, at the end of last summer. Isn’t it amazing?!
Used frequently as door knockers, another vestige of the Moorish occupation of the Iberian Peninsula is the Hand of Fatima. Fatima Zahra was the daughter of the Prophet Mohammed, and the hand door knockers are talismans used to ward off the evil eye, and offer protection to the household.
This may not be a photo of a fancy door knob, but it is a significant one. Around many of the little villages in Andalucía there is often a morning bread delivery. The little van from the panaderia winds its way around the steep streets, leaving a loaf of bread tied to the doors of many of the houses, in much the same way that the milkman used to make his early morning deliveries to make sure you had your daily pint of milk, back in the UK. Does that still happen I wonder? 🙂
So, there you have them – some grand knockers on plain doors, some quite plain knobs and knockers on grand doors.
This month’s CBBH Featured Blogs:
** The Legion of Door Whores has a collaboration of contributors who post doors of many descriptions they have photographed. Considering the theme of this month’s challenge, l was delighted to find a particularly splendid pair of door knobs in Girona, Spain as well as these fine brass knobs in Buenos Aires, along with a host of other doors in all shapes, sizes and condition. If you are a bit of a Door Whore yourself, you will be amazed at some of the beautiful photographs posted onto this blog.
** Kiva is a non-profit organization close to my own heart, with a mission to connect people through lending, to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world. Learn more about how it works.
Kiva gives you the chance to make small loans to borrowers working to start businesses and improve their lives. I’m already a Kiva lender and as a way of saying thank you for your support of my blog, I WOULD LIKE TO OFFER YOU A $25 FREE TRIAL.
To redeem your Free Trial all you have to do is CLICK THIS LINK and choose who to lend your money to – BUT HURRY – THERE IS A LIMITED NUMBER OF FREE TRIALS. IT WON’T COST YOU A PENNY – I PROMISE! Kiva will notify me if any of my readers take up a Free Trial, but I’d love you to still let me know in the Comment section, below.
TOGETHER, LET’S TRY TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE THIS MONTH!
So that´s the CBBH Photo Challenge for MAY, everyone!
Remember, all you have to do is post your entry by the end of the month, tag your entry ‘CBBH Photo Challenge’, link back to this blog and, most importantly, don´t forget to add links to any two blogs that you´ve commented on during the past month, so that we can all HOP OVER and have a look. Make sure you FOLLOW THIS BLOG so you don´t miss next month´s exciting challenge!
For more information on how the CBBH Photo Challenge works click here.
I hope everyone taking part enjoys the exposure the CBBH Photo Challenge offers to featured blogs and, who knows, you may end up finding a new favourite! I´m looking forward to seeing your interpretations.
[CBBH logo Image credit: (cc) Mostly Dans]
East of Málaga 
IN WHICH I participate for the first time in this challenge and contribute to this wonderful site…
http://wp.me/pjF3j-I9
Awww …you are too kind, Nando. Welcome to your first CBBH Photo Challenge.
You have a great selection of photos for us. My favourite is the fish one – how unusual. Hope the owner is a fisherman!
Thanks for sharing links to two blogs you enjoy. It’s always good to get recommendations, isn’t it?
Wonderful !
Thanks, Kathryn 🙂
Why thanks Marianne! All of these pics were taken in France, specifically near coastal towns. The fish knocker was taken outside a home that was surrounded by fishnets, boats and other maritime items.
Looking forward to June’s challenge!
Ah yes, it HAD to be a fisherman!
The June Challenge is: Same Subject, Different Time 🙂 Have fun with it, Nando.
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A bit slow this month, but here’s my entry from Tarragona: http://travelwithintent.com/2013/05/30/knock-on-the-door/
Gorgeous photos, Debbie. No wonder you fell in love with these particular knockers, they are a work of art. So glad you shared them.
Thanks for featuring links to two blogs you enjoy. I know the Lady of the Cakes very well, but I’ll HOP over to Janeline’s place right away.
Great entry for this month’s challenge, well done!
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Marianne, I love your collection of knobs and knockers, especially the ones with the stars on them and the red and green doors. Love the bread delivery hanging on the doorknob as well.
I had a little trouble coming up with something for this challenge, as Oman’s doors are all about locks and bars rather than knobs and knockers. Here is mine anyway: http://catbirdinoman.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/cbbh-photo-challenge-knobs-knockers/
How interesting that it’s mostly about locks and bars rather than knobs and knockers in Oman. Sorry if it gave you an extra difficult challenge – but you rose up to it, beautifully!
I’ve just been over to have a look at your featured blogs – and followed!
Great challenge entry, Cathy – well done!
Thanks so much, Marianne. Yes, everything’s about hiding and locking down in Oman. Especially where the women are concerned. I had to make do with what I had here! 🙂
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Hi Marianne 🙂 I was thinking of you in Paris last week 🙂 http://bopaula.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/cbbh-challenge-knobs-knockers-d/
Hope you had a great time in Paris, Paula.
Thanks for sharing links to two blogs you enjoy.
It was wonderful. Thanks Marianne.
A beautiful array!
Thanks, Naomi 🙂
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Really wonderful blog! I just heard about your blog and subscribed from Canadian Travel Bugs! I had done a post on the doors of Paris and she told me to check out your challenge! Awesome blog! By the comments it looks like I follow a lot of similar blogs and I’m so looking forward to reading yours!!! 🙂 nicole (thirdeyemom) Wonderful post by the way too! The knobs are fantastic!!
Hi Nicole
Thanks for your very kind comments and becoming a follower. Diana at CTB is so helpful at pointing people towards each other, isn´t she?
It´s great to have you along 🙂
Marianne
I just wished I had subscribed earlier! Now I know what I’ve been missing!
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Oh boy…my mind went to some funny places when I read this month’s theme.
I’d be very disappointed if it hadn’t, Jo 😉
A superb set of er….knockers and knobs Marianne 😀 Can’t seem to find any good ones in my archives.
Thanks Madhu 🙂
I want to have one of those door knobs. Stylish, artistic, deep, rich, totally unique. Beautiful images my friend.
Kind of you to say so, IT – they are rather special, aren’t they?
Love the knobs and knockers, hehe. BTW the recipe was awesome, going to make some more of it later on 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it – once you finally got out to the shops!
Oh yes! Can’t get enough of it…so easy and so yummy! Have to scour your site for more recipes…
Go to the bottom of the page and click on the “recipes” tag 🙂
You clever sausage you!
😉
😀
Hi again hon. Thanks to Madhu I figured out what you were trying to tell me and do. Sorry, been blonde again for too long now. 😆
Is this what you wanted? Sonel’s Corner Link Thingies
I’ve added the short tutorial at the bottom of the other tutorial. You can go there and please let me know how it works out for you. 🙂 *big hugs*
I will, I will – thank you so much 🙂
You are very welcome hon. 🙂 *hugs*
Yes that’s it! I did put a link in when I tried it in your comment box (which highlights, but doesn’t seem to link to anything.)
Yes, I saw it highlighted but did not go anywhere. Try it again with the code from my page and let me know how it works now for you. I’ve added the tutorial at the bottom : 🙂
Sonel’s Corner Link Thingies
*hugs*
I made it two months in a row! http://lucidgypsy.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/cbbh-photo-challenge-knobs-and-knockers/ thanks for a fun and slightly naughty challenge!
You did!
Thanks for another lovely post, Gilly – from around the world 🙂
An added bonus for me is that I have just visited (and thoroughly enjoyed) your two featured blogs this month.
Well done!
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What a fantastic collection of knob and knocker pics you have, Marianne. I don’t think I have any for your challenge. 😦
Ah well – never mind, Sylvia. No doubt you will bounce back next month ….. unless you find something in the meantime 🙂
Great photos… but really, you had to call this Knobs & Knockers??? LOL 😛
Marianne… tsk tsk… my British Carry On naughty saucy sense of humour is coming out now…
Hahaha …. how could I NOT call it this?
Us Brits must stick together with our sense of humo(u)r, huh? 😉
After I posted my comment, I realised I should have just writtten “Ooooooh matron, knobs and knockers? You are naughty!”
Now there’s a blast from the past! You are showing your age now, Richard 😉
LOL I’ll be 42 in a month… btw, if you ever get the chance, I highly recommend reading The Kenneth Williams Diaries… they’re fascinating…
…he was an odd fellow…
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ☆ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ .
🙂 You’re a ☆
One of my all time favorites based on the weight and creativity of Iron. Why do I never get your posts???
Fantastic aren’t they?
I don’t know why not – what I do know is that some blogs I’m subscribed to don’t appear in my reader either. All I can suggest is that you unsubscribe and then re-subscribe (is that a word?) to see if that makes a difference.
Under the circumstances, thanks for taking the trouble to let me know 🙂
here is my offering marianne … not such great photos but definitely on topic! http://dadirridreaming.wordpress.com/2013/05/02/knobs-and-knockers/
Lovely photos Christine and very well adapted. How lovely to see the Hand of Fatima on the doors in France, too. Whatever the thought behind it – it’s still a lovely idea to offer protection to the household.
Thanks for the introduction to two blogs you enjoy visiting. It’s always lovely to try out new places 🙂
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I love knobs and knockers so I’ve been gazing very intently at your pics. We used to have a lovely knob shop where I would often browse and occasionally indulge in new drawer knobs. And, only last weekend we were looking through the G.O.’s collection of door knobs he’s found on demolitions and also the originals from our house. We have the same knob as the bread bag is hanging from 🙂 I’m interested to have a look at Kiva.
How interesting that the G.O. has a collection of demolition door knobs! Are there any fancy ones?
Bless you for your interest in Kiva, EllaDee. If you click through to the link on my post – you can redeem the $25 gift there. It really wont cost you anything and can make such a difference to the borrower you choose. 🙂
There are a couple of fancy ones – my favourite is a large amber cut glass and brass 🙂
You’re an excellent ambassador for Kiva 🙂 I have looked at the site, and need to look into Kiva, the T&Cs a bit more.
Of course, I understand.
My interest in Kiva started a few years ago, following the death of a close friend and a family member plus the realisation that there were really no material things I wanted at Christmastime. As we were in Australia at the time, I invested in the Oxfam Unwrapped gifts of a goat and a chicken – which were given to some under-privileged families in Africa. I think I bought these as gift cards from Woolworths 🙂
I also used $100 to lend to four people on Kiva, and each time the money is paid back – I get to re-lend it all over again! I’ve made 14 loans now 🙂
🙂 We “receive” goats, chickens etc each year as Christmas gifts from the firm I work for.
Excellent! I like your firm 🙂
Love these, Marianne. So vibrant. I might join in when I’m home again. Doorknob hunting in Krakow sounds fun! 🙂
Yes it does – have fun, Jo 🙂
These knock my socks off! Oooooooh, sorry. 😉
Hahaha – glad they do, Gemma 🙂
Hola Marianne, muchas gracias for the mention of my Girona door image. Kiva is a wonderful organization. It is amazing how a little money allows somebody to buy a few chickens to start a business. This contest of yours is a wonderful idea too. I will see if I can participate with some other images.
Hola Eduardo
You are most welcome – what a fantastic example of not only the door knobs, but also it teaches so much about HOW to photograph them to best effect.
I truly love lending on Kiva. I’m always excited when my previous loans get paid back so I can re-lend to someone new 🙂
I’d love you to take part in this month’s CBBH Challenge, and thanks for taking the time to comment. Much appreciated.
Hi Marianne- Thanks for mentioning my photo of the brass door knobs in Buenos Aires. Many beautiful doors there!
Hi Jane
Yes, I´m sure there are many beautiful doors in Buenos Aires – and one day I would like to see them for myself 🙂
You are most welcome – your photograph is amazing!
I love these challenges and this is guaranteed to be a good one.Your photos, as always, are quite good, Marianne, but I also appreciate your taking time to research and share a little about the figures used to create them. And what a quaint — yet fantastic — practice of having bread delivered daily. How I would love that!
Of course, it´s the little bit of local information that makes the photos come alive, isn´t it? Like the fresh bread delivery! 🙂
Sadly, because I live in the countryside, the delivery van doesn´t come this way – I have to go and get mine!
Very interesting theme, and very well captured photos… 🙂
Thanks Mr Drake – that means a lot!
Great photos, great challenge. I’m off to see what I can find!
Look forward to seeing your photos!
Absolutely stunning door knobs hon. You don’t see them very often here nowadays and this was quite a treat. Thanks for sharing. 🙂 *hugs*
Glad you enjoyed them, Sonel 🙂
Oh the quaint customs of rural life hehe! Here in da big city you’ll never see bags of bread hanging from doors (unless it’s a family member of yours who has left it there). Once I forgot an umbrella outside the door (and I live in an apartment too, so it wasn’t like it was out on the street) for a few minutes and when I went to get it it was gone. And it wasn’t like it was an expensive, diamond-studded umbrella either, just your regular dollar-store umbrella. Ya gotta be pretty desperate to steal a dollar-store umbrella from someone!
Yes, very different in the little villages. I can also remember seeing people´s mail poking out from underneath the door (as often there is no letter box for the mail man to post it through) – and no one passing by would dream of touching it 🙂
I am so going to win this!!!!!!!!
Just look at mine:
http://ladyofthecakes.wordpress.com/2012/11/18/the-amazing-doors-of-toledo/
Ah yes, there are some mind-blowing doors in Toledo – my first knocker in the CBBH Challenge is from that very city!
I thought I recognised that one from somewhere, lol.
I thought I recognised that one from somewhere… 😉
Hi Marinanne, I love this challenge and had to join in (first timer :)). I just posted something similar from our trip to Beijing, but I added more and did a whole new post. Thanks for the inspiration. Third Eye Mom did something similar too on her recent trip to Paris. Another blogger who escapes me now did doors and windows recently too. Popular theme that I will never tire of.
Check out mine here
http://canadiantravelbugs.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/cbbh-photo-challenge-knobs-and-knockers/
Then welcome to the CBBH Photo Challenge, first timer!
Gorgeous selection, Diana – you have captured them beautifully! And, don’t the red doors look wonderful with the brass furniture attached?
You’re quite right – I think most of us love doors, don’t we?
Do you have any blogs you love to visit to recommend to us – so we can HOP over and take a look? If not, then don’t worry, but we each usually try to include a couple so we can broaden our horizons, so to speak 🙂
And, because you were so quick off the mark, you also have the honour of being this month’s first entry! Yaay – we’re off!
Thanks Marianne… doors are great subjects and they seem to tell you a little story. The brass knockers on the red really do pop and each one is a little different, which is why I have so many pictures of them 😉
Well there are a lot of blogs I try to read and a few new ones I have come across, or they found me is- vastly curious (vastlycurious.com) and tv or travels (http://tvortravels.wordpress.com) , both on wordpress.
I am honoured to be your first for this month’s challenge 🙂
Thanks again for a great challenge and taking the time to stop by and comment.
Lovely – one I am familiar with, and one I´m not! Guess where I´m off to now …… 🙂
Excellent… enjoy.
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molto interessante
grazie
Gracias 🙂
a perfect choice for me to sift through all the wonderful doors and knobs i photographed in september … back soon! meanwhile thank you for the free trial, kiva looks like a great scheme, well worth supporting marianne 🙂
You’re welcome – it’s always exciting to choose someone to lend to 🙂
See you back again soon!
I’m also a Kiva lender. So simple and easy.
Since your photo challenge lasts a month I’ll wait until I’m standing before a memorable Spanish door to take a photo; I’ll keep my eye out for a good one.
I love the fact that through KIVA I can give someone a HAND UP rather than a HAND OUT – much more dignified 🙂
OOHHH when and where are you visiting in Spain, Trish? How exciting! Look forward to seeing your Spanish door 🙂
Barcelona and Mallorca. Leaving in 3 hours…
Fantastic – you’ll love them both, I’m sure. As you might expect, they are very different but each are wonderful in their own ways.
Have a great time, Trish 🙂