Description (Physical description)
Catalogue card (typed) for 1923.276: '18 iron keys... also two spring-pins from padlocks'
Event Date
Author: David Kay

Context (Related Documents)
Catalogue card notes: 'No provenance. Roman and later.'
Event Date 1923
Author: David Kay

Description (Physical description)
Catalogue card (original) for 1923.276: 'Ten Eighteen iron keys.'
Event Date 1923
Author: David Kay

Context (References)
cf: Museum of London (1940) 'Medieval Catalogue' London: London Museum Catalogues
Event Date 1940
Author: David Kay

Description (Physical description)
Possible night latch or slide key, with a simple symmetrical design forming the central aperture in the oval bit. The shank is long and sub-cylindrical, ending in a rhomboidal bow with a circular central piercing.
Event Date 5/12/2018
Author: David Kay

Context (Analysis)
Although differing somewhat in form (an oval rather than 'D'-shaped bit, long shank, very small bow) the general form of the bit, especially the aperture pattern, suggests this object may be a night latch or slide key. See the Portable Antiquities Scheme database for examples of this object type (e.g. CORN-201C8B, LANCUM-F9FE85 or DUR-104936) dated as Post Medieval. However, the London Museum Medieval Catalogue lists similar Type IX 'casket-keys' (see Plate XXIX, no. 6) as dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. As such, the Period field has been filled as '?Medieval; ?Post Medieval'.
Event Date 5/12/2018
Author: David Kay

Context (Found together / assemblage)
Found in bag of twenty objects (nineteen keys and one staff head) (1921.266.1, 1921.266.4, 1921.266.8, 1921.1081-1082, 1921.1085, 1921.1606, 1922.780 A-B, 1923.213.10, 1923.276.20, 1923.1137, 1923.1169 A.1-D, 1923.1203, 1924.654 A and 1948.1705-1706) with handwritten card reading: "NO PROV.", and on the reverse in a different hand: "Spur, Anglo-Saxon, 24"
Event Date 22/1/2019
Author: David Kay