Links of London produced more than jewellery. The original house also applied its polished silver design language to a wide range of personal accessories and small objects, including keyrings.
This sterling silver Round Tag Screwball Keyring is a particularly neat example: a substantial open silver ring with polished spherical ends, a removable threaded ball for adding keys and a plain circular fob suspended from the lower section.
The result is practical, mechanical and deliberately restrained.
Vintage Links of London sterling silver Round Tag Screwball Keyring
A Screwball Keyring Construction
The main keyring is formed from a curved sterling silver bar approximately 3.5mm in diameter.
At each end sits a polished silver sphere measuring approximately 10mm in diameter. One of these balls is threaded and can be unscrewed from the bar, allowing keys to be added directly onto the main silver ring.
This avoids the more familiar split-ring construction and gives the piece a cleaner, more engineered appearance.
Links of London silver keyring with round hanging fob
Round Tag Fob
A plain circular sterling silver fob hangs from the lower section of the keyring.
The fob measures approximately 20mm in diameter × 1.2mm thick. Its polished, undecorated surface provides a simple counterpoint to the larger screwball fittings and keeps the overall design visually restrained.
The design could also lend itself naturally to personalisation, although no original catalogue wording has yet been recovered to confirm whether Links of London specifically marketed it as an engravable model.
Sterling silver screwball keyring with polished spherical ends
Dimensions of a Surviving Example
A surviving example documented by Links London measures approximately:
- Overall width: 35mm
- Overall height: 38mm
- Main silver bar: 3.5mm diameter
- Spherical ends: 10mm diameter
- Round fob: 20mm diameter
- Fob thickness: 1.2mm
- Material: Sterling silver
The proportions make this a compact but substantial keyring, with the polished spherical ends giving it much of its visual character.
Vintage Links of London keyring measuring 35mm wide
Links of London Hallmarks
The surviving example is hallmarked LL, 925 with a date letter for 2010.
The hallmark dates this individual piece rather than establishing the year in which the design itself was first introduced.
The screwball form is nevertheless consistent with other Links of London keyring designs in which a threaded spherical end is used as the practical method for loading and removing keys.
Round Tag Screwball Keyring in polished sterling silver
Part of the Wider Links of London Accessories Range
The keyring sits naturally within the broader world of Links of London accessories, where familiar jewellery materials and polished forms were adapted for practical everyday objects.
Its design avoids unnecessary decoration. The circular fob, rounded screw fittings and curved silver bar provide all of the visual interest, with the functional mechanism becoming part of the design itself.
This is very much the same approach seen elsewhere in Links of London silver: simple geometry, bright polished surfaces and a tactile quality intended to reward handling.
Links of London keyring with 20mm circular silver fob
A Surviving 2010 Example
The example documented here was never used, although years of storage had left some age-related surface marking.
It has since been professionally cleaned and polished and survives in great vintage condition.
Its dimensions, sterling silver hallmarks and screwball mechanism provide a useful reference for identifying further examples of the same design.
An original Links of London catalogue title, product reference and retail price for this exact version have not yet been recovered, so Round Tag Screwball Keyring remains a clear descriptive working name based on the observable construction of the piece.
Sterling silver keyring showing removable screwball fitting
Design Through Function
The appeal of this keyring lies in the way its function and form are almost inseparable.
The removable ball is not merely decorative; it is the mechanism that allows the keyring to open. The circular fob is equally simple, while the polished silver bar gives the piece enough weight and presence to feel more like a small silver object than a disposable accessory.
That combination of utility and polished silver design makes the Round Tag Screwball Keyring a useful example of how Links of London extended its visual language beyond jewellery and into everyday objects.
Links of London screwball keyring with 10mm polished ball ends
Vintage sterling silver Links of London keyring front view
