Vintage Syroco Lion Skeleton Key Wall Plaque, No. 3661-B, c. 1969–1980
Viridian Eclection
The Piece An oversized skeleton key rendered as wall sculpture, moulded in resin and finished in black with gold picked out along every raised edge. The bow is the performance: a coronet of fleurs ...
The Piece
An oversized skeleton key rendered as wall sculpture, moulded in resin and finished in black with gold picked out along every raised edge. The bow is the performance: a coronet of fleurs de lys over a cage of scrolled strapwork, and standing at the centre of it a rampant lion, forepaws raised, modelled fully in the round rather than flattened into relief. Below the lion a leaf capital tops a fluted column, and the shank runs down through a rope twisted section to the bit, a plate of pierced wards diapered edge to edge with rosettes and foliage.
It is designed to be read from across a room. The pierced work throws real shadow on the wall behind it, the gold catches whatever light is in the room, and the black ground keeps the whole thing graphic instead of fussy. Two triangular hangers are screwed to the hollow reverse, ready to hang as it comes.
History & Provenance
The reverse is struck with the copyright symbol, DART IND., MADE IN U.S.A. and the model number 3661-B. That number identifies it precisely: it is the Syroco Lion Skeleton Key, catalogued under the same figure by the dealers who handle the pattern.
Syroco began in Syracuse in 1890 as the Syracuse Ornamental Company, carving wooden funerary ornament by hand, and made its name on compression moulded wood pulp decoration sold as SyrocoWood. Through the 1960s the firm moved over to injection moulded polymers, which is the material here, and it became one of the great American suppliers of decorative wall ornament: mirrors, sconces, wall pockets, plaques and, at the height of the Spanish and Mediterranean revival, enormous keys like this one.
The Dart Industries mark is what dates it. Dart Industries was the corporate name that succeeded Rexall Drug and Chemical Company, a change recorded in the federal courts, which named Syroco among its consumer goods holdings; Syroco ornaments carrying the Dart mark are documented from 1971. That name ended in 1980 when Dart Industries merged with Kraft to form Dart and Kraft, after which the corporate mark changed. The key therefore belongs inside that window and cannot sit outside it.
Product Details
| Era | c. 1969–1980, fixed by the corporate mark rather than by style. Dart Industries was the name that replaced Rexall Drug and Chemical Company at the end of the 1960s and is recorded as its successor in federal court records of 1973; Syroco pieces bearing the Dart mark are documented from 1971; and the name ceased with the merger into Dart and Kraft in 1980 |
| Maker | Syroco, Syracuse, New York, under Dart Industries |
| Model | 3661-B, the Lion Skeleton Key |
| Material | Moulded resin, black with gold highlighting, hollow backed |
| Marks | Struck to the reverse: copyright symbol, DART IND., MADE IN U.S.A., 3661-B |
| Dimensions | Approximately 17 in. long by 7.5 in. across the bow, per the catalogued figures for this model |
| Hanging | Two triangular hangers screwed to the reverse, present and sound. Ready to hang |
| Condition | Good. Finish sound overall with the gold highlighting rubbed on some raised edges, partly as made and partly from handling. A small pale chip to the shank where it meets the bow. Light dust and grime in the deeper recesses. No cracks or losses to the pierced work found on inspection. |
Why It Belongs in Your Home
A single object this size settles a wall that nothing else quite fits: the narrow run beside a door, the panel between two windows, the stretch of stair wall where a picture would look stranded. It is tall and thin and it draws the eye upward. Hang it alone and it reads as a piece of architecture; hang it over a console with a lamp raking across it and the pierced work does the rest. The lion is the detail people come closer to look at, which is the best thing any decorative object can do.
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