INDUSTRYNEWS
SPONSORED BY LOCKDECODERS
LSJ is delighted to welcome back as an editorial contributor, Brian Morland, Curator of the Heritage Collection of Locks and Keys. Brian is well-known in the industry and is widely acknowledged as an expert in the fascinating history of locks and keys.
The Mystery of the Tann Showcase locks
By Brian Morland
Edward Tann and later his son, John were both proud and motivated Victorians who strove to produce the ultimate safe and, of course, the locks to go with them. The World’s trade fair of 1851, later known as ‘The Great Exhibition’ was so successful that similar exhibitions were frequently held around the UK and Europe in London, Edinburgh, Paris and many other European cities. Sometimes these exhibitions featured lock-picking trials or safe-breaking contests. For example, Chatwood v Herring at the Paris 1867 exhibition turned into a very acrimonious affair. Others thought that public lock-picking trials simply educated the element whom locks were designed to keep out - a debate that continues today. Many believed that the methods and weaknesses should be discussed and developed behind the closed doors of guilds, associations and other professional bodies. Tann, however, presented their lock patents in a beautiful range of gilt and silver locks which appealed to both the scientific, and artistic mind-set of the Victorians. They were housed in cabinets known as The Tann Exhibition Showcases; eventually there were five cabinets in all. EUROPE IN TURMOIL The end of the Victorian era soon found Europe in turmoil and by the time things started to settle after two world wars fashions had changed and exhibitions took on a different energy. So the early safes and showcases languished for many years in the basement at Newgate Street.
Eventually Tann changed hands, during the seventies, and with no sentimentality to the past the basement was ordered to be cleared. Fortunately, most items which included safes, locks, documents and records - were saved. One of the early Tann lock designs was a detector but worked on a different principle to Chubb. The detector was activated by over lifting one of the levers but a separate plate; pivoting on top of the bolt but beneath the levers released it although still with a reverse turn of the key. It might well be reasoned that Chubb would be upset about this similarity. John Chubb was very outspoken and not at all shy about pointing out what he believed to be weaknesses and encroachments in other make ??d??????????????????????????????????Q?????%???????)????
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