Extremely Rare Wrought Iron 'Hessian Soldier' Door Latch, Southeastern Pennsylvania, Circa 1780

A related keyhole escutcheon is in the collection of the State Museum of Pennsylvania (William Penn Memorial Museum), Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (see Herbert, Peter and Nancy Schiffer, Antique Iron: Survey of American and English Forms, (Exton, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd, 1979), p. 44, fig. A). Two other escutcheons were once in the collection of Mrs. J. Insley Blair (see Albert H. Sonn, Early American Wrought Iron, Vol. I, (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1928), pp. 258-9, pl. 113, figs. 1 and 3).