English Bulldog Journey

 It is official we are now starting to make our dog and cat door accessories available for purchase online. Until now we have  eschewed direct online sales as we are a small company without  departments devoted to these tasks. By virtue of being small we cannot make large quantities of products, preferring to maintain a high level of quality by making only a small quantity of pieces. We are taking our first steps with the English Bulldog that can be purchased as a leash hook, door pull, single knob or door knocker all of which are easily installed using the basic tools and by following our installation guide.

 The Bulldog, also known as the English Bulldog or British Bulldog, is a dog breed that Martin Pierce grew up with. Martin’s dog, Sugar, was very typical of this breed being  hefty, muscular and with a somewhat squashed nose and wrinkled face. The breed is a descendant of the larger mastiffs which are said to have been introduced to England by the Romans. Whatever their ancestry this is one of my favorite breeds and feel their expressive jowls and wrinkles are well captured in Martin’s bronze sculptures.

At present the doorknob set can only be purchased by contacting us by email or phone as we need to ensure the set is correctly installed by a professional and the correct type of latch is supplied. While the simple tubular latch is easy  to install and is included in the door set customers will first need to check that their door stile is wide enough for the 3” backplate and assess whether their existing knob set has a square or rounded edge faceplate.

Creative solutions for a narrow door stile

Whether an interior door or cabinet door, a narrow door stile can be a challenge. Creative positioning of a door pull can be a solution if you plan ahead. You will need to consider all the dimensions of your pull and not merely compare the width of a pull with the available width of  your door stile. The width, depth and height of many pulls differs throughout  a piece and this is especially so where the piece is not a symmetrical or a standard geometric shape.

The Hedgerow heroic trees are good examples of the variations within a piece.

Using Directional Pieces

The Hedgerow trees are a pair and the sway of the trunk is how we chose to designate one left and one right. Nature makes no such distinction which explains why these bronze trees can work pointing left or right as the restraints of the door stile dictate. The design and mounting spots  also allows the tree to be positioned a few degrees  off perpendicular which is helpful when positioning on a narrow stile.

The mock-up below shows a door with a 5” stile so by flipping the direction of the tree the sway of the trunks prevents knuckle collision. As the pull projects out by 1 1/2” it has ample clearance from the face of the door panel for a comfortable grip.

 Re-configuring the pull

Many of our pulls and handles are made in parts which are welded together. All of our dog door knobs are made with the head cast separately to the escutcheon or pull. For a narrow door stile, we recently re-configured the location of the head so that the pull could be positioned horizontally. In the mock-up below the door stile is a narrow 3” but the door rail at  41/2” allowed the dog head to be positioned upright.

Left: reconfigured dog head location Right: playful use of the standard dog head location

With a 3 1/4” distance between ears some planning ahead is needed for a narrow door stile

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

When developing our line of Dog Knobs, one of the breeds we chose was the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, although not the most popular of breeds, we had one lovely example named Iris who we dearly loved. Iris has since past and now we have another Staffy called Jackson who is a very young, very strong and a very vocal young male. When we were contemplating a second Pit Bull, we spent time meeting rescue dogs to see if Iris would share her home with one and Jackson was her choice. Had we not spent the time checking both dogs for compatibility we may well have repeated a mistake made years before when we foolishly asked our resident Vizsla to share her home with a second Vizsla. While that particular canine bond was always a sensitive one, Jackson and iris got on fabulously and indeed Iris’s longevity and mental acuity we ascribe to Jackson’s puppy playfulness.

While Iris’s markings and ears  were very different to multi-colored perky eared Jackson, they both share the same head shape and extremely powerful jaw with soft and gentle muzzle and disposition.

 We understand that every dog owner loves their particular companion’s characteristics so for those of you with poodles, boxers, French bull dogs Golden retrievers, Labradors or German Shepherds, rest assured we have leash hooks and door knockers available for these breeds.