Victorian dresser locks and dummy drawer

[BK8562]

I have an old 4 drawer Victorian dresser that I am trying to learn more about via the saw marks, nails and screws, wooden knobs, dovetail joints and the locks but no key. I unscrewed the top drawer half-mortise lock and this is what it looks like. The third drawer down is a dummy keyhole; why that one? The locks in the wood are not cut out perfectly like another Victorian dresser I have. Ideas of why this looks the way it does? I think this is a common lock; can anyone tell me more about it? Was it a common practice later to just remove all of the locks for ease of opening? Any help greatly appreciated. This is a great website.

[Doug MacQueen]

Other than it's particularly nasty condition, it looks pretty common to me. It would not be necessary to remove a lock of that type since the bolt remains retracted when the key is removed. Maybe that would be done during refinishing and the locks not reinstalled. Good older lock shops usually have a wide selection of furniture keys. Doug

[Tom Gordon]

Depending what part of the victorian era, originally only one top drawer had a lock -for the husband to lock away whatever he wanted. Others would have been fitted at a later date...and if they didnt need that drawer locked they still wanted it to match with an escutcheon. It might have been economy or a range of things, but dummy keyholes are not too uncommon.