Curiosities & Oddities
Vintage Skeleton Key Set.
Six old keys, no two alike, on a plain iron ring: iron and brass, mostly English and American, mid-1800s to early 1900s, each with the soft darkness of a century of pockets.
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About this product
None of them fit any door in the house they arrive at. All of them clearly used to. Six keys on a plain iron ring, each one the end of a story you will never hear, and the beginning of whatever you decide it means.
There are two long-barreled iron keys with ornate bows, three smaller brass ones gone soft brown with age, and one stubby little thing that might have opened a jewelry box or a diary. They were gathered rather than matched, pulled one by one from estate sales and the hardware bins of buildings coming down, mostly English and American ironmongery from the mid-1800s through the early 1900s. Each was given a light brushing to lift the grime without touching the patina beneath.
Folk belief across old Europe held that an iron key hung over a doorway could keep out nightmares and lesser mischief, cold iron being a thing ill will could not cross. Elsewhere a key was pressed into a bride's hand at the threshold of her new house. A key has rarely just been a key.
Details
- Six keys on a plain iron ring, no two alike
- Two long iron keys, three brass keys, one small key
- Mostly English and American, mid-1800s to early 1900s
How to use
Hang the ring by an inside door, loop it over a hook, or keep it in a drawer to be rediscovered.
A small collection of thresholds that no longer need guarding, still glad to be asked.
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