Reference Object

Primary Visual Evidence

Attribution Assessment

This object consists of an authentic antique warded (“skeleton”) key with a hollow barrel shaft and a decorative bow. The key’s construction and surface condition are consistent with late-19th to early-20th-century examples used in a wide range of locks (furniture, cabinets, trunks, interior doors, and institutional interiors). A handwritten cloth tag tied to the key includes an attribution to “S.S. Majestic” and “White Star Line,” with additional notations that may indicate a room/cabin reference (e.g., “E35”).

The ship association cannot be confirmed from the key alone. No chain of custody, archival paperwork, deaccession record, or known White Star Line key-tagging exemplar currently supports the tag format or its specific claim. Accordingly, the key is treated as period-consistent, while the “S.S. Majestic” attribution is recorded as traditions-based and unverified.

Historical Context

Warded keys with hollow barrel shafts were common from the 19th century into the early 20th century, especially in settings where warded locks remained in service (furniture, cabinets, trunks, interior doors, and utility spaces). Their widespread use means that a key of this type is often straightforward to date broadly, but difficult to assign to a specific building, institution, or ship without external documentation.

Ocean liners did employ vast numbers of keys across public rooms, service spaces, and private accommodations. However, shipboard use does not produce a distinctive “liner-only” key form in most surviving examples. In practice, ship attributions for keys rely on provenance (crew/yard/line documentation), documented deaccession, or a tightly supported chain of custody—rather than on the key pattern itself.

Limits of Evidence

• The key’s form is generic: warded barrel keys were used widely on land and at sea; typology alone cannot support ship-level attribution.
• The handwritten tag is the only ship-linked evidence; it is not currently corroborated by archives, inventories, deaccession records, or a documented chain of custody.
• There is no confirmed White Star Line standard for handwritten cloth key tags in this format available for comparison, limiting authentication by “house practice.”
• Ambiguity in the name “S.S. Majestic” (multiple historical usages and collector shorthand) increases the risk of later or mistaken attribution.