Key Unlocks Historic Mystery
Brice Stump
Daily Times Staff Writer
Delmarva Daily Times, MD
____________________
Salisbury, MD (United States):
There's a bent, worn key up for auction on eBay -- said to be an old key to the city of Salisbury -- and the owner is hoping to get $3,500 for it.
Though it appears to be a late 18th or early 19th century-style key, it's age is unknown and its history is, well, lost.
The 6-inch-long by 2 1/2-inch iron key is attached by string to a cardboard panel that reads: "The Original Key to the City. Presented to the Hon. Wm. J. Keene, Esq., by the Mayor and Council of the City of Salisbury, Md., at the celebration, Aug. 8 to 14, 1932, of the 200th anniversary of the Founding of the City."
Don Jacobson, who operates the eBay business site offering the key, is a broker for the owner of the key -- an anonymous client . "He came into possession of the key because he buys estate sale merchandise and occasionally there is a diamond in the rough. My client bought it at an estate sale in New Jersey. It had been in the attic," he said.
Problem is, said Salisbury historian George Chevallier, who has followed the auction, there's a mystery surrounding the key.
August 1932 coverage of the bicentennial celebration in The Salisbury Times doesn't mention judge and lawyer Keene among the delegates from Salisbury, England, taking part in the celebration.
Chevallier cannot find a Salisburian by that name living here at that time in his records. Chevallier also has an official program of the event, and it does not contain any mention of a key being presented to Keene.
It gets worse for what might be a recycled old-time smokehouse key.
"I wouldn't pay that kind of money for a key; I don't know what it's a key to. All I see is a little tag saying it was presented to Keene. We need to determine who he was. A real key would be a significant (find). Anyway, Salisbury was never a walled city that had a big gate. I don't think I'd pay $25 because it doesn't have the proper provenance with it. It should have been found in some English estate, not over here."
The 1932 Salisbury Times article does mention that a silver casket (or box) containing "a key symbolic of the city's hospitality" was presented to Councilor John Sidney Rambridge, mayor or chief executive of Salisbury, England, who led the visiting delegation. Keene's name is not mentioned, nor is a second key known to have been officially presented.
Roland Batten, deputy news editor of the Salisbury Journal in England, said he isn't able to shed any light on the mystery.
"The name Keene does not ring a bell with me, but certainly Rambridge is a local name and I have no doubt Councilor Rambridge was probably a member of the Salisbury City Council (at the time). It is quite possible that Keene was also on the delegation. It was, and still is, tradition to exchange gifts between visiting civic parties and a presentation of a silver casket is quite possible," Batten said.
As for the "symbolic key," as described by then Mayor Wade H. Insley, it may be the one being auctioned. Yet how it got back to the states from England is a mystery. The location of the silver box in which is was kept is not known.
Oct 17, 2005
Brice Stump
Daily Times Staff Writer
Delmarva Daily Times, MD
____________________
Salisbury, MD (United States):
There's a bent, worn key up for auction on eBay -- said to be an old key to the city of Salisbury -- and the owner is hoping to get $3,500 for it.
Though it appears to be a late 18th or early 19th century-style key, it's age is unknown and its history is, well, lost.
The 6-inch-long by 2 1/2-inch iron key is attached by string to a cardboard panel that reads: "The Original Key to the City. Presented to the Hon. Wm. J. Keene, Esq., by the Mayor and Council of the City of Salisbury, Md., at the celebration, Aug. 8 to 14, 1932, of the 200th anniversary of the Founding of the City."
Don Jacobson, who operates the eBay business site offering the key, is a broker for the owner of the key -- an anonymous client . "He came into possession of the key because he buys estate sale merchandise and occasionally there is a diamond in the rough. My client bought it at an estate sale in New Jersey. It had been in the attic," he said.
Problem is, said Salisbury historian George Chevallier, who has followed the auction, there's a mystery surrounding the key.
August 1932 coverage of the bicentennial celebration in The Salisbury Times doesn't mention judge and lawyer Keene among the delegates from Salisbury, England, taking part in the celebration.
Chevallier cannot find a Salisburian by that name living here at that time in his records. Chevallier also has an official program of the event, and it does not contain any mention of a key being presented to Keene.
It gets worse for what might be a recycled old-time smokehouse key.
"I wouldn't pay that kind of money for a key; I don't know what it's a key to. All I see is a little tag saying it was presented to Keene. We need to determine who he was. A real key would be a significant (find). Anyway, Salisbury was never a walled city that had a big gate. I don't think I'd pay $25 because it doesn't have the proper provenance with it. It should have been found in some English estate, not over here."
The 1932 Salisbury Times article does mention that a silver casket (or box) containing "a key symbolic of the city's hospitality" was presented to Councilor John Sidney Rambridge, mayor or chief executive of Salisbury, England, who led the visiting delegation. Keene's name is not mentioned, nor is a second key known to have been officially presented.
Roland Batten, deputy news editor of the Salisbury Journal in England, said he isn't able to shed any light on the mystery.
"The name Keene does not ring a bell with me, but certainly Rambridge is a local name and I have no doubt Councilor Rambridge was probably a member of the Salisbury City Council (at the time). It is quite possible that Keene was also on the delegation. It was, and still is, tradition to exchange gifts between visiting civic parties and a presentation of a silver casket is quite possible," Batten said.
As for the "symbolic key," as described by then Mayor Wade H. Insley, it may be the one being auctioned. Yet how it got back to the states from England is a mystery. The location of the silver box in which is was kept is not known.
Oct 17, 2005
