Just when blinds or shutters were first used on American houses is still a subject of controversy among students of colonial architecture. Generally speaking, outside shutters were not at all common in New England until the period of the Revolutionary War, but on the old stone houses of the Dutch in New York and New Jersey, and the Germans in Pennsylvania, battened and paneled blinds were in use at a much earlier date. The shutter-fastener as an antique has, therefore, lesser claims than some of the other early American wrought iron.

From casual observation one might easily conclude that there were but a half-dozen different patterns of them in use, but closer study soon reveals that their number is legion. Some few styles met with popular favor, and it is interesting to note their variations. The S pattern, for instance, can be found in one form or another from Maine to Florida, and the long brace hook in a variety of forms was also an early favorite.

Many of these fasteners were imported, and duplicates of most of the popular patterns can be found in England, notably in Kent and Sussex. Others which are decidedly unique in their conception, both as to construction and design, were probably the work of some local genius, or made to suit a client's fancy. In and around Harpers Ferry, Va., there are examples of the creations of a fertile mind with a penchant for shutter-fastening devices, some adaptations of which we find embodied later in cast iron.