The mother of all Lady of the house key: The Valley Key
Welcome to our new online store! After ten years, many new technical possibilities have emerged, and we are excited to take advantage of them. We hope you’ll like it. One of the first new things we’d like to tell you about is something we think is «the mother of all housewives’ keys»: The Valley Key!
Although lady of the house key has nothing to do with bunad silver, we are no strangers to keys on belts. It was often the case that the lady of the house was the one who carried the keys to the storehouse, outbuildings and main house, as well as many other things. The lady of the house was responsible for food, clothing and household goods. That’s why she had a key in her belt. Being handed the housewife key by either her mother or mother-in-law was an honor, and it meant that she now had power, so it was a solemn moment in a young housewife’s life. So the symbolism of the housewife’s key, which many wear with their bunad, is precisely the woman’s power over care in the household.
Therefore, many different variants of keys in silver have been made to take up this tradition. The Dalen key served as the stave church key in the stave church at Dal in Tinn, Telemark. The key was probably forged sometime between 1190 and 1220 and was used as a stave church key until it was rebuilt in 1775. From then on, the key has served as the stave church key at Dal farm, together with the lock and lock fitting. The door itself is a barn door from the same place. We have made a silver miniature of this fine old Dal key from the early Middle Ages in Norway.
The lock fitting was forged at the same time as the key, and similar lock fittings can be found on several old stave churches in this part of Telemark/Buskerud (Tuddal, Atrå, Numedal…). Probably forged by the same skilled blacksmith.
