back to the river park...and found a Eagle padlock and button, any idea age wise? Update Lock Identi

kevinstang

Spent a beautiful day along side the river and hit another corner area of the park, well almost just a vacant lot beside the park now. Nothing exciting coin wise, found $4.20 in modern junk, $3.25 of it in quarters (alot of boaters park their boat trailers and trucks in lot after launching them- must drop alot of change getting in and out). Did find one button down along river walk, it is the old style (sew on), but I don't think its that old, does look rather worn. Could be from a re-enactors uniform (they hold an annual winter invasion reenacting the British march across the ice from Canada) or possibly off a band members uniform - annual festival parade ends near the park during summer or something else? It was down about 3 inches and appears not to have corroded. Over in the vacant lot I found a brass lock (looks and feels like it to me anyways)- it was down about 4 inches and had some corrosion (wire brushed it for pictures some). Looks like internals were Iron as it won't close now even though the loop still pivots ok and the key whole is rusted shut. No markings that I could see on it. It is flat sided as shown. Brought my camera but ran out of time to take pictures, might go back for a while tomorrow morning and take some pictures and finish off another corner of park. I hit the campground site yesterday, but forgot the bug spray- after two days of rain here in northeast, the mosquitos were out in full force. I did manage to find about $2.25 mostly modern- except for two wheats (41 and 46). No more silver .

the button:



the lock:



Penny just for reference to lock's size


I did some more cleaning on the lock with a wire brush and on the loop found "Eagle Lock Co Terryville, Conn USA" . Looks like they are one of the oldest lock makers in the USA- dating back to 1833, thats all I have been able to find so far. I was thinking of putting the lock in a media blasting cabinet. The layers of crud are stubborn to remove, took quite a bit of time even with a wire brush on an angle grinder. Updated photo below:

goldrush00013

Dude that's a really cool lock!
A very good find to put in the relic catagory for sure!
No clue on age but very cool!

Lambeau

Awesome lock! That's really neat looking. If you find a date or any info on it then keep us posted!

lordmarcovan

I would imagine that lock is from the early 20th century (though I suppose the late 19th century isn't out of the question).

The button looks older to me... I would say early 19th century... but it's funny you mentioned re-enactors. I once found a shallow pewter button that had the markings of the British 71st Regiment of Foot (Fraser's Highlanders), but later found out, to my surprise, that it was a reproduction. Apparently some re-enactors here for the Battle of Bloody Marsh 250th Anniversary re-enactment must have lost it. It had a horizontal casting seam like that across the back. I haven't seen any period buttons with that seam, though I suppose it is certainly possible.

The funny thing about the 71st Regiment button I found was that it was on a site where I had found other (unmarked) pewter buttons that were not reproductions, though some of them were buried relatively shallowly, and my most valuable find, which was also pewter (though not so shallow): the War of 1812 US Light Dragoons beltplate.

I think you might be right about that button being a reproduction, but you have it in hand and can examine it better. It certainly looks like the sort of button that was used in the 18th and 19th centuries, but that seam I mentioned makes me wonder. Repro or real, it's an interesting find.