✅ SOLVED Trying to ID and date these finds.

[Frankyg]

I'm trying to ID these two finds and get a rough date. The buckle is cast bronze and the key is brass. any help would be appreciated. I've just read a post about buckles in this forum and it looks like this one is from a shoe or boot and dates to around 1700. This fits the location and depth where I found it.

 

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[Red-Coat]

Interesting key. Doubtless keys like that had multiple purposes, but I have seen one identical to yours which was marked “Farrow & Jackson”. They were a London company supplying various metalwork and other items but specialised in the supply of equipment for the wine, brewery and licenced victualler trade (both cellar and bar fittings) from the early 1800s onwards.

This is from their 1898 catalogue… note the key at the top right, which was for locking the taps on beer kegs/barrels.



The one I saw had a smooth oval bow at the end of the shank like yours, without the two indents shown in the catalogue, but with exactly the same bit profile as yours at the business end. The 1898 catalogue contains multitudinous keys with a wide variation of profiles, including some with smooth bows, and doubtless there may have been other variations at different times.

 

[ironhorse]

I would date the keg tap key to the early 1800s and no doubt used and sold right to the end of the century

 

[nkellam22]

The first item is the tongue and chape of an 18th-century shoe buckle
https://www.google.com/search?q=18t...ECA0QAw&biw=1421&bih=703#imgrc=Vl_BFk92qgBzPM

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Looks to me like you've got the answers you're looking for Frank.

Great info by Red-Coat too.

Dave