You can get one for around $1, put it on a chain, and voila! You have all the mysteries and treasures of your life embodied in a one-of-a-kind pendant. The good news is, unless you want a fancy sterling silver key encrusted in white diamonds and have no interest in owning an authentic piece of the past, antique keys are cheap. When I see a girl with wearing a bit key around her neck with a heart-shaped bow, it screams to me, “The lock on my heart is extremely simple to crack!” Which, to be fair, could be true. The reason is that modern blade keys operate the pins and wards of a lock in two dimensions-not just one the way a bit key does-and so provide much more security.
These fine-jewelry pendants from Tiffany’s obviously don’t have corresponding locks. I understand an antique key conveys mysteries that are ancient and universal, whereas your house or car key merely suggests something much more practical and mundane, but at least newer keys really work. The bits are the teeth at the end of the key that operate the lock. Such keys can be called barrel keys when their shank, the long, bone-like part of the key, is hollow, like a barrel of a gun. The other thing to know about antique bit and barrel keys is that their companion locks were tremendously easy to pick. This style of key, which was used for more than 1,500 years, is known as a “bit” or “barrel” key. Odds are the key you are attracted to for its design is just a single-lock key rather than a skeleton master. But if you pick up an antique key and you’re not a knowledgeable key collector or trained locksmith, you probably can’t tell whether it’s a skeleton key or not. A skeleton key is a specific kind of antique key that opens many doors (there we go again with the metaphors!). More often than not, though, necklaces made out of skeleton keys do not, in fact, use actual skeleton keys. On the other hand, it could just be fashion.
The precedent for jewelry as symbols goes back at least to Queen Victoria, who hardly ever wore jewelry that didn’t have a emotional message of love or mourning.
When a woman puts an antique key on a chain and wears it around her neck, close to her heart, it could mean any number of things, a mystery just begging to be unlocked. Back in the day, keys were used as a means to flaunt your wealth, as they indicated you had something worth stealing. Metaphorically, a key can expand knowledge or offer passage to other, metaphysical realms.īut, when I see a girl wearing a skeleton key necklace, like the one offered by Lauren Blythe Designs on (above) or the one worn by country-pop star Taylor Swift from (right), I sometimes wonder what it means to her. Locks and keys can also be used to protect one’s most valued belongings or to secure the gates of a walled city, so having a key is both a symbol of trust and conquest. Taylor Swift wearing a skeleton-key necklace.
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