Flanders
The box, framed by a series of apparently twisting sticks, is decorated with a network of thistle leaves in bas-relief on background of fabric (modern). The keyhole with spindle is housed in an architectural structure consisting of an arch supported by two baluster columns. Two fabulous birds dominate the ensemble on both sides of a vase (the wing of the right-hand bird is broken). The ornamental vocabulary, borrowed from a fanciful plant world, heralds the advent of the Renaissance style. In 1888, the catalogue of the Art and Industry exhibition in Brussels attests to the presence on this lock (then part of the Vermeersch collection) of a deadbolt in the form of an angel. The incomplete mechanism still has its latchbolt locking system.