Dinosaur key

simoncpage

Of the 3-4 years of key collecting this key is one of the most fun and interesting I have come across.

Does anyone have any idea what this key is for? I wondered if it was a special key to the British museum maybe? It certainly show the key has had some usage and I would say 19th century? I’ve given it a clean just to remove the majority of thick rust that had covered it. The dinosaur end is very heavy with matching dinosaur each side and makes the key very impractical especially as you couldn’t attach it to anything.

Any info appreciated.

Richard Phillips

Nobody has replied, so I’ll offer this.
The bit looks likely to be for a French lock. In mid-19C Britain there was much scholarly and popular interest in dinosaurs, so that suggests a likely date. I don’t know if the French were also interested in dinosaurs, but if they were, it’s an interesting period novelty.

Gerry

i suspect it’s a dragon

toot

not a DRAGON, it has no wings.

Huw Eastwood

toot wrote
not a DRAGON, it has no wings.

Our friends from the East might disagree with you on that!

As a Welshman living in Wales we are never far away from dragons over here. The dragon on our flag is traditionally winged like those of europe and western tradition.

But, if you think of traditional Chinese dragons and the spectacular new year displays they perform- theirs are traditionally wingless and slender like serpents- very different to those of western mythology.

[unknown]

toot

what ever it is it certainly very unique. Never seen one before. I for one like it.