What's this piece of iron with crown on it??

[Chrischappell62]

[/Found a piece of iron. After I derusted it I notice a crown with five points on each side . Looks like it fits in your pocket. Old metal/iron tobacco case maybe ??

 

[Mud Hut]

It looks like a very well toasted rim-style door lock.

 

[Indian Steve]

I Agree with Mud Hut.

 

[villagenut]

I third that

 

[tamrock]

I'm on the fence still. Though it looks like a late 19th century mortise lock, I'm finding it odd there is nothing in the way of a hole for the door knob shaft and why it has decorative elements on the sides that would be unseen inside the door has me wondering. ??

 

[Mud Hut]

I'm on the fence still. Though it looks like a late 19th century mortise lock, I'm finding it odd there is nothing in the way of a hole for the door knob shaft and why it has decorative elements on the sides that would be unseen inside the door has me wondering. ??

If it is a lock as I suspect, it would be a surface mount rim lock and not a mortise lock. Lots of rim locks were very decorative. I imagine with an electrolysis bath, a lot more detail and clues would be exposed.

 

[digging440yrs]

It does look like a door lock---

 

[tamrock]

Well that looks like more proof. Keyholes probably rusted over.

 

[oldsilver]

Definitely lock! Awesome piece of history.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

I'm on the fence still. Though it looks like a late 19th century mortise lock, I'm finding it odd there is nothing in the way of a hole for the door knob shaft and why it has decorative elements on the sides that would be unseen inside the door has me wondering. ??

Definitely a rim lock, they came from plain to fancy and all in between. Finding a fancy one means the people had some money to spend and is a good sign for a site...

Here's a couple I have in my box of salvaged door bits, plain and fancy...

 

[against the wind]

Good work guys,,
I'll put this one in the memory bank for the future.

 

[FFFPatriot]

All I know is, right now I'm hungry for a brownie.

 

[Chrischappell62]

After spending more time cleaning I was able to pop seams and now it looks like a lock. Any timelines??

 

[Mud Hut]

After spending more time cleaning I was able to pop seams and now it looks like a lock. Any timelines??

After seeing the guts of it, I don't think it was a rim lock per-say, as that generally refers to a lock mechanism like Nola Ken showed in his post above, having both a door keeper and a lock. However, I think yours is a mid-19th century surface mounted rim bolt .. an early predecessor to the modern deadbolt, similar to the one shown below. Those are much scarcer than the others, which constitutes an absolutely wonderful find in my book! A keeper for sure!

 

[NOLA_Ken]

What MudHut said ^^ It's been a while since I've seen one of those

 

[Mud Hut]

What MudHut said ^^ It's been a while since I've seen one of those

Yup .. don't see many of them.