Alfa Romeo – original vintage early 1960s ? keychain

An original Alfa Romeo keychain which we think will have been produced in the late 1950s or early 1960s .

It is sometimes difficult to establish an exact date when a keyring or a keychain was produced – this keychain being a prime example –please check the evidence below which we have based our dating assumption on .

We have just this one example of this keychain to offer – when this keychain has been sold this listing will be cancelled.

An original gilt plated vitreous enamel Alfa Romeo keychain in excellent condition .

This is the only example of one of these particular Alfa Romeo keychains which we have ever listed over the years – curiously simply stating ‘ ALFA ROMEO’ rather than ‘ALFA ROMEO MILANO ‘ which would have been more usual in the late 1950s & early 1960s .

Possibly the manufacturer of this keychain badge ( who certainly produced badges for other makes of car at the same time ) did not realise that the Alfa Romeo badge contained ‘ MILANO ‘ ( this persisted until 1972 when ‘MILANO’ was dropped from the badge ) .

We do not think that this keychain was produced after 1972 particularly as the original clasp is still present on the keychain and these were not still in general use then .

Furthermore keychains like this one had become very passe in the early 1960s as leather keyrings as we still know them today had by then taken over .

The badge has ‘MADE IN ENGLAND’ and a curious capital ‘B’ within a circle and a smaller ‘C’ within a circle on the reverse – in our book this dates the badge to the late 1950s or early 1960s as we have seen other keyfob badges for other makes of car which are easily dated to the late 1950s or early 1960s with the same symbols .

We have never discovered who this manufacturer was but have seen this mark several times particularly on the reverse of Jaguar badges when we have had them in stock .

Bud Marston in USA – the author of the famous ‘Vintage Jaguar Keyrings ‘ book featured in our Jaguar section here in this website shop – describes this mark in his book and wonders if the ‘C’ within a circle stood for ‘copyright’ .

These keychains were the very first car keyrings which were ever produced .

They preceded keyrings with leather keyfobs which started to make an appearance in the late 1950s.

The clasp opens as shown in the final listing photos to allow the car key to be fitted .

The keychain in the photos is the actual one which you will receive.