Antique dealer Jim Klasen was captivated by the beautiful key he discovered in a shop near Seattle.

With its exquisite miniature enamel painting it was no ordinary key but a work of art - and its price tag meant it stayed in the shop.

But Mr Klasen could not get the antique out of his mind after going home in Alaska.

He returned to buy it - and became the proud owner of a little piece of Ilkley's history.

The key has all but been forgotten about in its home town - but it was once an object which inspired great admiration, and which played a central part in the opening ceremony of the Town Hall in 1908.

It was presented by the architect and his sub-contractors to Mr T J Jackson, the Chairman of the Building Committee and the driving force behind the creation of the municipal building.

It is described in great detail in the Ilkley Gazette of May 2, 1908.

It says: "The key, which had been designed by Mr J W Hudson, watchmaker and jeweller, Brook Street, bore on one side a very handsome photograph of the buildings in coloured enamel, together with the seal of the council also in coloured enamel, and on the opposite side a capital portrait of Mr Jackson in similar material with an appropriate inscription."

How the key found its way from Yorkshire to America is not clear, but Mr Klasen believes the antique shop owner may have acquired it on a buying trip to England.

Mr Klasen, who has collected antiques for about 15 years, first saw the key in 1991. It now forms part of his collection in Alaska.

He said: "It caught my attention because of its miniature enamel paintings that appear realistic enough to be photographs.

"The enamel work on this key was extraordinarily well done and preserved. I recognised that the enamel work on the key would be very difficult to reproduce today. Because of modern photo techniques I doubt that any painter existed today with the experience and enamel pigments to create such a work of miniature art."

Mr Klasen said: "So many times I have looked at an antique and wondered what the story was behind it. For me the typical questions are who made it, who owned it, and when it was made."

He adds: "One of the best parts about this purchase was that with this key I would at last have one item where I could come close to knowing the full story behind it. The basic questions of who and when are answered."

Mr Klasen says: "One question that lingers is why the key is so beautiful, and by that I mean why go through so much trouble to hire the best enamel painters of the era to reproduce such exact images of Mr Jackson and the Town Hall.

"The answer I think is that the key was an expression of civic pride and gratitude by some very talented and wonderfully giving people.

"I hope that same sense of civic pride, fine design, and public service still exists in Ilkley. From reading about Ilkley and its people over the Internet I would say that this is still so."