Chatwood's in The Bank on Colledge Green (Dublin)

Cepasaccus

I was last week in Dublin and went for dinner to this restaurant and then to the toilet.

Serial numbers of the free standing safes are 21780, 21781, 21782. One of the doors has a s/n of 2065 and the other something similar. It looks to me like the doors are just for decoration there. The interior decoration is from about 1895 - 1900 done for the The Belfast Bank.

What locks did Chatwood use?

Huw Eastwood

Nice find! Great to see old safes and SRD’s in their original livery like that. Locks-wise I think Chatwood used all their own stuff like their single bitted and double bitted Impregnable but safeman or Tom would know for sure.

Gary Stephenson

Probably something similar to these on the safes and doors, the grille gate lock looks like it could have been an interesting one.

Gary Stephenson

or double bitted invincibles

Cepasaccus

All key holes were for single bitted keys. So your single bitted example lock might be what these safes were installed with. Thanks.

Gary Stephenson

they did do a smaller bodied version of that single bitted lock as well but it had the same levers / invincible stump but with the bolt head below the levers blocking the boltwork.

Tom Gordon

The only safe locks that they bought in were earlier with the keyhole being horizontal normally, so these were likely to be Chatwood locks as Gary described although often in a vault with two keyholes, one would be double bitted keys and the other single bitted. They would make whatever the customer asked for though.
these are 1895

Cepasaccus

Then they must be from the time when The Belfast Bank opened its business in this building at the end of the 1890s.

Cepasaccus

When I saw the other day a Chatwood Invincible on ebay I couln’t resist. It looks exactly like Gary’s. 8 levers. Serial I38558 (or 138558, but the first letter looks more like an I). The front cover has iron discs where the key hole is and at two additional locations. Perhaps to cover holes in the brass plate?

Tom Gordon

Cepasaccus wrote
The front cover has iron discs where the key hole is and at two additional locations. Perhaps to cover holes in the brass plate?

This is a high quality lock off a high quality safe/vault. They don’t have holes which need covering.
Every single aspect of the lock has a purpose, if only one can work out why. This one is easy though. They are hardened disks which would rotate to frustrate anyone trying to drill though them and are at critical places where a hole could allow the lock to be opened without the key.

[unknown]

Cepasaccus

The steel discs are indeed in front of valuable parts of the lock, but as you can see on the back of the cover, there are two holes under these discs. The right hole is probably there to hold the pin where the levers are turning on. The other hole is probably where the stump comes into contact with the lever pack, but I can’t see the purpose.

PS: Was the breaking of the spring on the back of the bolt a practical problem?

Cepasaccus

And btw. the back side is decrated with light scratches which are certainly handmade as they are very irregular.

Tom Gordon

Cepasaccus wrote
And btw. the back side is decrated with light scratches which are certainly handmade as they are very irregular.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]21373[/ATTACH]

That type of scratching is a common Chatwood feature.
the other hole in the case looks irregular and may be due to a drill attack.
If you look at these piccies you will see that the lever pivot, keyhole and bolt stump were all protected and this lock didn’t use the cap to support any steel pin

[unknown]

Cepasaccus

Tom Gordon wrote
That type of scratching is a common Chatwood feature.
the other hole in the case looks irregular and may be due to a drill attack.

The steel discs look all the same, well made and a bit of rust. So if it had been drilled it must have been at a time when they still knew how to cover up the hole really well and also had the will to do so.

Tom Gordon wrote
If you look at these piccies you will see that the lever pivot, keyhole and bolt stump were all protected and this lock didn’t use the cap to support any steel pin

I think it does. I looks to me like there is a hole in the cover where the pivot pin is.

Does someone know when this lock was made? From what I have found here I would say: The number is indeed 1…. and not I…. . Exact dating is not possible. Estimation would be around 1910.

[unknown] [unknown]

Huw Eastwood

Tom Gordon wrote
If you look at these piccies you will see that the lever pivot, keyhole and bolt stump were all protected and this lock didn’t use the cap to support any steel pin

Tom, it’s a good job you’re around to confirm unusual detail differences like this as it’s a long time since I worked on one and my instinct naturally assumed the (Lever) pivot pin would project slightly above the top of the leverpack, to locate snugly in the (seemingly) matching hole in the cap (under the hard disk protecting it).

So many other safe locks did this for rigidity/strength to help prevent the pivot pin from bending/breaking under force attack applied from the bolthead.
Perhaps the shroud casting is such a tight fit around everything they were confident it couldn’t allow the leverpack to move even if it was to bend under such attack? Ok I know what’s probably coming in answer to that, “everything is so snug a fit the pin can’t even bend” 😛: Chatwood’s legendary quality again no doubt.

The hole under the intact hard disk near the stump on Cepasaccus’ lock does seem a bit of a mystery.

[unknown]

Cepasaccus

Photo of the lever pivot:

Photo of the discs from the front:

Cepasaccus

Cepasaccus wrote
Does someone know when this lock was made? From what I have found here I would say: The number is indeed 1…. and not I…. . Exact dating is not possible. Estimation
would be around 1910.

Remembered my serial number wrongly. So from these two dates here https://www.antique-locks.com/showthread.php/4247-Dating-a-Chatwood-Invincible-help?p=22616#post22616 I would say around 1905.

[unknown]

Cepasaccus

How would the key for this lock have looked?

Cepasaccus

I have read in the Chatwood catalog here about this double-bitted lock and its uncopyable key. How does that lock work?