Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018 — I was working in the shack earlier today and ran across a box I hadn’t opened from earlier this summer. It turned out to be a key that I had pursued that was from Tom French’s SK estate.
It’s a 1905 Vibroplex, SN 1024. The key is in really nice physical condition, though missing the finger and thumb piece. Tom liked to keep his keys in “as found” condition, and other than the missing finger and thumb piece, the key is original and complete.
The finish on the base is amazingly complete and lacks many of the chips found on keys 20 years newer. The base even has vestiges of the original carriage striping. The plating — for a 113-year-old key — is also in amazing condition.
There were two other auctions for keys from Tom French’s estate listed at the same time as this 1905; the other two were an J.E. Albright licensed bug, and a 1913 Vibroplex bug with a one-off nameplate. I couldn’t afford to pursue all three, and consider myself fortunate to have been able to win this auction.
I would like to add an original style finger and thumb piece to the key, if for no other reason that to make it look complete. The one catch I see is that on the earliest keys, it doesn’t look like the thumb piece was held on a small screw at the rear of the paddle; it almost looks like it was pinned. The pin or whatever the attachment device was used is still in place and has a small portion of the original thumb piece attached. I’ll have to check it out closely before I replace it. I’ve seen another 1905 key that the owner replaced the small pin or attachment device is a slightly larger screw or nut. I’ll have to research that.
My theory is that this key original must have had a storage case; otherwise it wouldn’t have survived the decades in such nice condition. But hey, that’s just a guess.
