Crockets

(Fr. croc=a hook), projecting leaves, flowers, or bunches of foliage, used in Gothic architecture to decorate the angles of spires, canopies, pinnacles, etc.; they are also frequently found on gables, on the weather-mouldings of doors and windows, and in other similar situations; occasionally they are used among vertical mouldings, as at Lincoln Cathedral, where they run up the mullions of the windows of the tower, and the sides of some of the arches, but they are not employed in horizontal situations. They are used in suites, and are placed at equal distances apart: the varieties are innumerable. The first instances of crockets are to be found lzte in the Early English style; they mostly consist either of small leaves or rather long stalks, or bunches of leaves curled back something like the head of a bishop's pastoral crook. Decorated crockets vary considerably; the most usual form is that of a broad leaf with the edges attached to the moulding on which it is placed, and the middle part and point raised.

In the Perpendicular style this is the most prevalent form, but they are not unfrequently made like flat, square leaves, which are united with the mouldings by the stalk and one edge only. In a few instances, animals and figures are used in place of crockets, as in Henry the Seventh's chapel.