The Somerset Key Holder
English Bridle Leather. Walsall, England. Cognac.
Lifetime Warranty · Hand finished in Kanpur
Dispatched within 48 hours. Complimentary shipping across India.
Every James Aston order is already made, and sent to you with complimentary shipping across India.
Dispatch and Delivery
Every article, save for a belt, leaves us within 48 hours. A belt we hold only long enough to be sure of your size, reaching you by message, email or telephone; hearing nothing, we trust the size you chose and it too travels within 48 hours.
From our hands it passes into the care of the courier. Most orders find their way to homes across India within a week; now and then the roads run slower, and for that we ask only your patience. We write to you the moment your piece begins its journey, with the means to follow it to your door.
Beyond India
For delivery beyond India, write to us at info@jamesaston.in and we will arrange it personally.
A man carries his keys every single day, more faithfully than almost anything he owns. The Somerset holds them in English Bridle leather, and asks to be the good thing he reaches for each morning.
The Somerset is a key holder made in English vegetable tanned Bridle leather, the traditional leather of the English saddler, small enough for the pocket and made to the same standard as the largest piece we build.
Bridle leather is tanned slowly and then curried by hand, worked with tallow and wax until it is dense, firm and quietly lustrous. It is the leather made for harness and bridle, built to be used hard and to last, and it wears not by failing but by deepening. On a piece handled as often as a key holder, that patina comes quickly and beautifully.
The keys are held on imported metalware finished in brushed nickel and marked with the James Aston initials, so the house mark is with you each time you reach for the door. The leather is folded and stitched by hand, its edges finished and burnished, small work that is only harder to do well at this size.
The Somerset is offered in three, navy blue, cognac and bottle green, each a considered colour that deepens with wear. Each is the same key holder in a different humour.
Somerset is an English county of old pasture and older craft, and the key holder is named in that spirit, English in its leather and made to be carried for years. It is guaranteed for the whole of its life. Crafted once, and carried forever.
We stand behind the making of every Somerset for the whole of its life. Should the stitching, the metalware or the leather ever fail, we repair or restore it. The leather is English Bridle, tanned and curried in the traditional way, and it is meant to age. It will darken and deepen into a patina that belongs to you alone. That is not wear. That is the point.
Read the PromiseDo you carry the Somerset Key Holder? We should be glad to know how it wears.
Share Your ReflectionSpecification
Every material named. Every word earned.
- Leather
- English Vegetable Tanned Bridle Leather, from Walsall, England
- Hardware
- Imported metalware, brushed nickel finish, with the James Aston initials
- Colour
- Cognac
- Warranty
- James Aston Lifetime Warranty
Service & Care
Complimentary shipping across India. Each piece is dispatched in James Aston packaging.
Exchanges are accommodated within the stated period from delivery, with the piece unused and in its original condition.
The James Aston Lifetime Warranty covers any defect in material or craftsmanship, unconditionally and without expiry. A piece made once, to be carried for a lifetime.
English Bridle is a firm, waxed leather that improves with use. Keep it dry, and buff it from time to time with a soft dry cloth to bring up its shine. A little neutral conditioner now and then will feed it. Marks and a deepening tone are the nature of the leather, not a fault in it. Carried daily, it becomes unmistakably your own.
Cut from the Same English Bridle
These pieces are cut from the very same English Bridle from Sedgwick of Walsall as this piece, and are made to be worn and aged as one, whatever the colour.
A GiftEvery piece arrives boxed in the House manner, ready to be given. A gift note can be enclosed on request.