This is the most beautiful, complete, and largest book on antique locks and keys ever published. Not only are there over one-thousand stunning high-resolution photos of European locks and keys from Roman times through the Industrial Revolution, all with dates, dimensions, and provenance, but the detailed photos and the author's notes also allow us to examine and understand the workings of the locks' internal mechanisms.

This is a book that every lock and key collector, locksmith, blacksmith who makes locks, and architectural restorer, will want to own.

Author Ulf Weissenberger's tour de force covers the history of locks and keys, how their mechanisms developed over the centuries, and how each major art period affected their shape and decoration.

The author also presents his personal ideas on the restoration of antique locks and keys.

Ulf Weissenberger has been collecting and restoring with passion and attention to detail for over 35 years. In this book he gives us impressive insights into almost 5000 years of cultural, technological, and artistic history and, almost incidentally, answers the question of how naturally locks and keys have been part of our lives for millennia.