Help with padlock identification please

MStoddard

Hello,

 I located this forum while attempting to find information about nineteenth century padlocks on Google. We found a padlock with the key in it during the 2009 field school season and I am currently using it for a paper and likely as a piece of my thesis. So far I have not been able to find too much, from the shape it seems to perhaps be a smokehouse style padlock. Like far too many it has the initials V R with a crown overhead. There are no other visible markings even under magnification. Any assistance with the type of padlock it is or resources would be much appreciated. I know that manufacturer identification is unlikely given the dearth of markings.

Thank you!

Dean Nickel

Are you able to remove the key without breaking it for pictures of it? That would also help with the ID of this lock.

First blush I would guess UK for place of origin.

http://www.antique-locks.com/keys/1601-restoration-tips.html

Also see this post if you want to remove the rust. It might destroy the lock being as much rust is there but maybe not. I would wait until other wade in on this.

Scott Klemm

Hello MStoddard -

I think I can help you. The VR stands for Victoria Regina or Queen Victoria. The firm of Abraham Thompson of Willenhall, England manufactured padlocks with the letters VR under a crown. According to the web site “A Gazetter of Lock and Key Makers,” A. Thompson imported locks to the United States. Go to this web site for further infomation.

One observation I made was that the padlocks illustrated here had the company name under the crown and VR letters. Your padlock does not, but I still think it probably was made by Abraham Thompson.

Scott

MStoddard

Hi Halflock. The key was firmly stuck in the lock when we found it. I would have loved to have removed it, but preservation is our main goal and we cannot risk damage to anything we find as it is all just considered on loan to us. Rust removal isn’t an option as it has already undergone metal conservation in order to preserve it until we repatriate it at some future date. Thank you!

Thank you Scott! I will look at that website for more information!

Tom Gordon

Yes VR means Queen Victoria (1837-1901) but those two letters were used by just about everybody, so I am afraid that you are unlikely ever to find out who made it.

MStoddard

Hi Tom, that is my worry as the V R gives it a timespan of 1837-1901. The brass keyhole cover leads me to 1840 or later based on info from A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial American by Ivor Noel Hume. Is the particular form factor of this lock significant? It is very similar in style to smokehouse locks, which despite their name were likely used for other purposes as well I am guessing.

Zooming in heavily on the uncompressed photographs I took shows a few minor pits under the V R on the lock. Given the angle of wear cutting across the crown on the left side and on the V perhaps something may have been underneath at one point. The difference between the V and the R is quite dramatic and can also be seen in the loop at the bottom of the crown where the lower left corner has been completely worn away.

I’m very interested in any input anyone may have. While I would love any extra details for this particular paper I am more interested in working this in to my thesis if I can nail down a small list of potential manufacturers to further investigate. Abraham Thompson seems to have some models very similar to this particular lock, did different manufacturers have models of similar make during the nineteenth century?

Again thank you to everyone, I greatly appreciate your time!

Dean Nickel

Can you get better pictures of the key pipe and key head? This might help a bit.

MStoddard

I have a better picture of the key pipe on hand, somehow I didn’t think to take one of the top of it and will do so as soon as I get back to the lab.

Chris Belcher

I believe that this lock is from the time of William IV. If you look carefully at what appears to be a ‘V’ , you should notice that the ‘V’ is somewhat wrong and there is a faint line that forms the missing leg of ‘W’ Also, the line of stamping is way off centre compared to the crown. If you imagine that the ‘V’ is a ‘W’ then the line centralizes. Also, going from what I see in the pictures above, I believe that there was a deliberate attempt to remove or partially remove the ‘W’.

MStoddard

That could be an interesting possibility as the site is dating to the 1820s-1830s through other means. Was there ever a practice of manufacturers altering existing locks during the transitions between monarchs? I had thought that side may just be due to excessive wear and that the straight lines from top left to bottom right were perhaps just how it was originally but if that were the case then the lines themselves would likely be worn away as well.

Chris Belcher

This might have been an attempt at deception. Trying to make a lock seem newer than it was.
If you look at the ‘R’ , it looks to have been over stamped. I would think that, as it was a poor deception, the lock was discarded with its key.

———- Post added at 10:21 PM ———- Previous post was at 10:13 PM ———-

This could be a case of deception. If you look at the ‘R’, it appears to be over stamped also. The seller may have been trying to make the lock appear newer than it was by altering the Monarch. Then, having messed it up , thrown it away with it’s key.

MStoddard

The lock was found within a marginalized household in Connecticut which makes this option unlikely. It could be that it was given to or sold to them after an attempt at modification as the original owner now found it worthless. Given that it was found in the United States I do not think the owners of the house it was found in would have attempted modification in an effort to increase its value. Sorry that I can not go into more detail on the circumstances of its finding, I had to request permission to post it online and part of that permission being granted was not providing specific details.

Chris Belcher

That is very interesting. Some prominant people who lived in Conneticut at the time, seem to have been very involved in the politcal scene in New York.. This style of padlock was also used on ballot boxes. A ballot box disappeared in Statton Island around the same time. Although found destroyed.
Conspiracy theory?🙂

MStoddard

Haha that would have been a very interesting form of resistance by the occupants of the area that the site was located in!

Brian Denyer

Russel & Erwin from New Britain, Conneticut have similar styles of Padlocks shown in
their 1863 hardware and lock catalog.
Some of the British locks like this were massive and measured just under 12 inches.
I have some of these black iron/steel types of Padlocks with the VR and the brass keyhole
Drop Plate used for protection from the elements. Some were finished with a baked Japaned layer of enamal paint.
At a Cemetary I found one of these padlocks rusted to the railing leading up to the Church.
There is also a set of British handcuff/legirons which uses a padlock to join one side of the cuffs. It has twisted links joining the 2 sides of the cuffs.

sergius7

I have found this latch near Kiev in Ukraine. Does anybody have information about the padlock?