History of Locks
What You See Is Our
History and Heritage
By Brian Morland
An early Hobbs safe badge, highly
decorated, featuring the Royal Coat
of Arms majestically on a plinth.
An early Milner 2 part badge, including
the Royal Coat of Arms and also a plate
which reads “Milner’s Patent Double Fire
Resisting Chamber’s by the mutual reaction
of non-conduction and evaporation
keep their contents under 212 degrees
the boiling point in red heat beyond
the duration of casual fire. Liverpool.
Improved for the general registry 1845”.
A George Price combined badge and
escutcheon. A circular badge surmounted
with the Royal Coat of Arms and an artistic
drop gives it a pleasing appearance, also
containing an oval cartouche containing
‘212’ and a triangular cartouche contains
the letter ‘G’, a masonic reference.
52
» TODAY WE TAKE THE CONCEPT OF
branding, labels and logos as a social
statement. We like to be seen to be
associated with a high profile name
whether it’s in fashion, i.e. the clothes
and accessories we wear, or the products
we buy such as cars and tech. Therefore
the story of security, the innovations and
milestones can be seen in the way that
products were presented; particularly in
the Victorian safes of the time.
The emergence of new products,
sparked in part by the Industrial
Revolution, with desirable features,
perhaps also encouraged with
commercial protection in the Patent
system, saw an increase in goods that
had desirable features but also the
increasing trend to mark these products
with a name or logo. Some makers also
tapped into deep rooted psychological
connections as well.
The modern iron safe is a relatively new
concept first appearing at the end of the
Georgian period when Tann and Milner
experimented with fire-proofing and
Chubb, Hobbs, and Chatwood focusing
on the security or burglar resistance.
There was much rivalry with very public
trials between competing makers.
Sometimes these trials were to test the
fire resistance of safe, sometimes to test
the physical resistance to the emerging
technologies to open safes.
The resulting competiveness resulted
in a very English concept at the time of
adding a maker’s plate, usually in cast
iron, brass or bronze to the safe, and the
plate itself contained all sorts of symbolic
references to the qualities of the safe.
Sometimes these references were
obvious; sometimes subliminal.
Let’s explore one or two examples.
An obvious example is to include the
Royal Coat of Arms crest. Both Chubb
and Hobbs, very early and very quickly,
established a reputation of state-of-the-
art locks by pioneering new ideas in lock
making. Early clients were Queen
Victoria and Prince Albert. Those that
were appointed were allowed to feature
the Coat of Arms and many did; very
prominently and with pride.
Locks were also treated with
embellishment with the royal coat of
arms logo and with various forms of
words such as “by royal appointment the
HRH Queen Victoria” or “Prince Albert”,
or other wording beautifully incised into
the lock forend, cap or flange. There is
a way of knowing if the lock in question
was actually used in one of the palaces,
look for a very tiny mark, say 1 x 2mm, of
a cross and orb symbol. This was a royal
inspector’s mark and has been found on
both Chubb and Hobbs locks, perhaps
others as well. You will notice that locks
marked in this way are always well made
and with a quality feel to them and very
often heavier construction for its type.
A very tiny
orb and cross
mark (above
the number 2)
flanked by letters
at the top and
each side, found
on locks destined
to the palaces.
A Chubb
double-detent
lock with an
orb mark, a
sure sign that it
was for a royal
vault and in
this case the ’X’
bolt work door.
The Milner safe badges are particularly
interesting. Not only do they contain the
Royal Coat of Arms, they are also full of
symbolism. For many years the basic
symbolic aspect of the design remained
unchanged with only the wording to
suit the grade or quality of the safe in
MAR/APR 2020
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