A Comparative Study on the Mechanism, Form and Decorations of Contemporary Chaleshtor Locks and Those from the Safavid Isfahan

Lock is a device that assures safety of human’s life. Iranian locksmiths, in addition to making locks and meeting the essential needs, valued the decorative aspects of such tools. Including pendants and movable types, these locks are portable and they are different from standard, ordinary ones. Artists in this field have incorporated a wide range of artistic, spiritual, cultural and aesthetic values of their living space into the locks’ forms and decorations. Therefore, locks in each region and city have their own special characteristics. Metal locks in Chaleshtor and Isfahan are considered a branch of Iranian handmade artifacts and their features, in terms of mechanism, form and motifs, are noteworthy and important. The geographical location of Isfahan and Chaleshtor, and their close proximity to each other have made this theory possible that the locksmiths of these two regions have had interactions. Accordingly, the aim of the present research is to study the characteristics of contemporary Chaleshtor and Safavid Isfahan locks, and to evaluate their similarities, differences and impacts on each other. The necessity of conduction this research is to consider the visual elements and originality of these locks, and to help revive the arts which are on the verge of being forgotten. In this regard, 13 locks have been selected; 7 from Chaleshtor and 6 from Isfahan. These constitute the statistical population of the research. Studying and examining these cases clarifies the differences of these two groups of locks in the two mentioned regions. Therefore, first a definition is provided on locks and their types, the method of production, and then, characteristics of Chaleshtor and Isfahan locks in the two periods have been studied. The results of this study are as follows: these two groups of handmade locks share common features in terms of using decorative inscriptions as well as arabesque and khatāi motifs. Such artifacts are the same in appearance and external form. Both have horizontal shape and it should be noted that steel is preferred in making them.  However, despite the similar form of the locks in these two areas, their internal mechanism and techniques of decoration are different. Chaleshtor locks have a spiral spring device and Isfahan locks have barbed springs. Thus, the way of opening and closing and the mechanism of both locks are different from each other. Furthermore, the form of Chaleshtor locks is tubular but that of Isfahan locks is a rectangular cube. The older history of Isfahan in the field of making locks indicates that Isfahan artifacts have had influence on Chaleshtor locksmiths. This research is done with a comparative approach and is based on a descriptive-analytical method. The data of this article is collected from library sources and thorough field studies.