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The front doors have a pretty nifty doorknob on them:
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With sooper sekrit keyhole!
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The inside doorknob is simpler, but still has cool detailing:
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And then we have matching details on the letter slot on the inner, black doors:
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One of our friends, an antique doorknob aficionado, had this to say about this set of fixtures:
Your front doorknobs, doorplate, keyplate, and letterbox (oh my god! you have a letterbox! eeeeeee!) are by the famous British Victorian designer, Eastlake. [...]
I have some doorknobs and doorplates that look like your front door knobs (that exact flower design), and I got them on ebay for 20 bucks each before the Eastlake name became popular and hot. A complete matching set like what you got is mucho, mucho. (I got a slightly differently designed matching set and several different individual Eastlake designs. All before they got popular and expensive- yay! But you've got absolute treasure here.)
I believe that particular (Charles Locke) Eastlake flower design is from fairly early in his design career, approx 1865 if I remember right. Most of the stuff you see available on Ebay is from 1880.
I note that the early career timing would match up nicely with the postulated building year of the house, 1873.
To your immediate right as you enter the house, you see the spectacular glass doorknob with silvering inside that adorns the door to the front parlor:
This knob has many siblings throughout the house, including:
The inside doorknob of the dining room,
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the dining room closet door knob,
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and one of the library door knobs.
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And our Antique Doorknob Expert had this to say:
The round glass doorknobs with silver bubbles in them are Mercury Bubble glass doorknobs and they are even rarer [than the Mercury knobs, mentioned below]. Right, I've drenched the keyboard with drool. They are extra, extra special. They are rarer and more valuble than the fairly common octagonal crystal knobs though less obviously pretty. They are oh my god fabulous. Wow, you lucky things!
Also in the foyer is the rather spiffy glass doorknob to the dining room -- somewhat fancier than the other glass knobs elsewhere in the house:
Moving on to the kitchen pantry, we see the plain black doorknob with fancy plate typical of knobs in the kitchen area and the third floor (which is also, apparently, a typical Eastlake design):
And yet, on the closet behind the kitchen, we find this attractive purple glass doorknob (and functioning old lock!):
Another purple glass doorknob adorns the back door to the house:
Our ADE says:
The octagonal glass knobs you have (I have one of those, too) are wonderful. They are made clear, but the purple tint comes from many years of getting hit with sunlight, and the purple colour is considered VERY desirable.
There is a matching (in shape, if not in color) glass doorbell pull next to that back door -- service entrance, dontcha know:
This doorbell works, being a purely mechanical model, with a wire running through the wall...
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... and up to the bell.
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Upstairs in the library, we have an example of the silvered doorknobs without glass that are fairly common in the house:
To which our ADE says:
The silver looking doorknobs are Mercury doorknobs. I don't have any mercury doorknobs. They are rare and fabulous. Drooooool!
In addition to knobs, the library has a built-in cabinet with interesting hardware (also apparently Eastlake designs!):
and drawers, with similarly interesting hardware:
These have matching counterparts, in black, on the cabinets and drawers in the pantry, but the built-ins in the master bedroom have slightly different -- but no less floral and possibly Eastlake -- hardware, to be documented later.