1920's chest safe

abeavers

Good evening guys/ gals
My name is Allan Beavers
I am head of Technical services for Wilson Safe Company.
I have a customer who has this chest that is half safe and half writing desk.
She locked the key for the safe door inside the safe.
This indicates that the keylock either has an auto lock feature or is a latch setup.
First off there is no labels or logo on it.
The chest has 4 design faces that look like drawers
The top one is a flip down writing desk (she has the keys for that and the lock is the center keyhole seen in the picture.
The safe door is like a regular swing door that encompasses the bottom 3 design faces.
The key holes visible in the pictures are false.
In the 3rd picture on the bottom middle design you can see a brass plate with 4 holes vertical to the door.
This is the actual keylock for the door.
The top hole (#1) and the 3rd and 4th holes are non functioning (I think) the customer says that the key turns 180 degrees and stops.
The 2nd hole is the actual keylock
The key is described as a barrel key. The customer cannot remember if the groves are circular going around the outside of the shaft, (as in a lagard 2200 keylock). Or if the groves run horizontal like an Ace (bike) lock.
Don’t know if the lock is a latch or spring loaded bolt work.
I’m hoping someone can identify the safe for me before I try to open it.
Anyway here are the 3 pics of the unit

Huw Eastwood

Hello Allan what an interesting safe, it might take a while with something as unusual as that but hopefully someone will recognise it or have seen something similar.

Have you seen it up close or are you going purely by the clients photos and what they remember of the key as I’d imagine a site visit is going to be essential to get an otoscope in the keyhole and ascertain exactly what type it is.

abeavers

No I have not seen it in real life
OOnly the pics the customer sent and questions I asked her over the phone.
That is where I was able to get how the key functions
II have a little time to get info because she doesn’t need to open it for a couple of weeks.
HHopefully by then I will have more info
II asked Dave McOmie and he’s never seen one.
TThen I thought of you guys.

Paul Prescott

French or Belgian. I’ve seen a few setups and they always have a single latch bolt + multi-throw main locking.

The position of the latch bolt can usually be determined by the mark it has left on the door ‘frame’ over the years. The depth of it can be determined easily and then a very small side hole will allow the bolt to be pushed back and the door opened.

Should be easy and take no more than 10 mins all up.

abeavers

Sorry I took so long to get the update for y’all.
But we followed your recommendation and it worked wonderfully.
The cust was ecstatic to be able to get her passports and the tiny hole which our tech patched and now she can’t see where it was.
OOur tech found the name on the safe.
B Hafner aigne du Paris
Brevete s. 6.d.s.18.blvd.
Brevette is the name of the lock
I took lots of pics for y’all.
The lock is huge!
The faceplate measures 19 ¾″ by 3″
The lock body is 14 ½″ high by 6 ½″ deep by 2″ wide
The key works 2 separate locks.
One is a lever lock that sits on the outside of the lock case.
The other is a French click-click lock simular to the one made by Fichet on the Arden safe.
This lock also works 2 round dead bolts above and below the latch to double lock the safe.

abeavers

Sorry my wife need to to a couple of quick repairs.
Going to try the pics again
Sorry it seems my pics are too big so I will make them smaller and try again tmw.

Paul Prescott

Good to know you got it dealt with.

Brevette is French for “Patented”