The top rail leaves each outer stile low and climbs the full height of the leaf to a peak over the centre joint, where a tall fleur-de-lis stands. Curved top panel and flat bottom panel are both solid and set with diamond studs, with turned balusters ringed top and bottom running between them and a cresting of small fleur-de-lis following the curve above. Finished black, hung between brick columns at the head of a paved drive.
The whole design hangs on one line. The top rail starts low at the outside and rises the full height of the leaf to meet its opposite number in the middle, so the studded panel following it changes depth all the way across — and the peak has to land dead on the joint or the curve reads as two separate arcs. The fleur-de-lis is set over that meeting point, which is the one place on a pair of gates where a seam cannot be hidden.
The cresting and the centre finial push the ironwork well above the brick, so the entrance reads as the tallest thing on the approach rather than a gap in a wall. Getting that requires a wide opening with masonry columns already standing, and enough drive to take the whole rise of the rail in one look. Closer in, the gate trades the sweep for detail — studs along the curve, ringed balusters, and the house still showing between them.
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Every angle
