A Study of Drop Handles Design

Abstract

The drop handle in the Chosun-Dynasty played a role lifting up the cabinet and box which was attached to and besides this had the decoration function. The scope of this study should include the drop handles from the 18th century up to now by investigating and analyzing their definition & function and furthermore the types of their designs. The object of the study was the drop handle having 2 golden fixing parts which are definitive difference from ring or loop, and the design typology of drop handle was concentrated on the handle part, and it can be classified in two types. The one is the figuration of bow, bat, bamboo, fish and bird and so on from the motive of nature on the handle part, and the other one is the drop handle of the simple ㄷ-shape, the temple-symbol shape or geometrical forms. According to the analysis of relics & literature from the past it was found that there were more quantitative nature-motive figurations than the geometrical forms. The nature-motive figurations were again classified in box-, bat-, cloud- bamboo-, fish- and bird-type, and the geometrical forms in ㄷ-shape, the temple-symbol shape and others. The cases applied to furniture are roughly divided into the front-attached type and the side-attached type. In comparison of the drop handle in the Chosun-Dynasty with that of modern times, ㄷ-shape and bow-type keep the long tradition of the drop handles despite of the constructive change partly. Ring-type is similar to the just ring or loop of the part and drop handle with one golden fixing part, while the knob-type shows almost same forms in the past as well as in the modern times. Which type among handles in the modern times has little connection with the past is the reclaimed type, and it was showed in the Chosun-Dynasty and also is showed up to now identically that the man-made hole on the front side of the drawer for the function as handle.