History Lesson

I took this rim lock off of a closet door in our bedroom. The closet was re arranged when the house was re-modeled back in 1887. I certainly didn't expect to find this though.




See those four screws on the right. They have flat tips. Flat tipped screws were manufactured before 1846 when the machinery became available to put points on them like the two on the left.Based on the fact that there was bare wood exposed on the door when this lock was removed and how difficult it was to get the screws to turn, I would venture to say that this lock has never been removed. I could also speculate that this was the door to the original closet. It would appear that it was moved and re-hung. I would have done the same thing so I shouldn' t think it unusual. I'm just surprised that this particular door was of 1840s vintage seeing that it has five panels whereas most of the other older doors have two panels. Oh well, just another bit of quirkiness when this was the Big House on the Prairie.
Time to put that hardware in "ye olde coffee can o' paint stripper" for a day.