John tann Diamond Safe, Please share photos and info.

Faris23

Can anyone give me info about “John tann diamond safe”

If anyone has photos of the safe please share. I hear that the safe is one of John Tann’s strongest built, and was specially built for jewelers?.

safeman

Faris23 wrote
Can anyone give me info about “John tann diamond safe”

If anyone has photos of the safe please share. I hear that the safe is one of John Tann’s strongest built, and was specially built for jewelers?.

I have heard that it was initially produced at the request of The Diamond Corporation - De Beers before becoming more generally available.

I have only seen one attempt at being opened by oxy-fuel cutter on the body which was totally unsuccessful. This was in a diamond merchants office in Holborn Circus London on the weekend of 12th-13th October 1978.

[unknown]

Gary Stephenson

Did they also call the later ts5 model the diamond sometimes?

Faris23

I thought John tann installed Chatwood vaults in De Beers not safes?

safeman

Gary Stephenson wrote
Did they also call the later ts5 model the diamond sometimes?

Yes Gary.

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safeman

Faris23 wrote
I thought John tann installed Chatwood vaults in De Beers not safes?

The Be Beers building was erected on the site of the bomb damaged corner as shown on the right. This is where Chatwoods constructed the superimposed vaults.
It was not until some years later that J W Levy & Sons, the main Agents for John Tann, were asked to provide special high quality safes to the Diamond Corporation, the trading arm of De Beers. Hence the name of the safe.
Subsequently, when more high security capacity was required John Tann provided a number of vaults in the basement as shown.

The Company, now under the title of Anglo American plc, a British International Mining Company of which De Beers is a subsidiary, is headquartered in Johannesburg SA. They removed from this building which has now been redeveloped.

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Tom Gordon

I was most disappointed when the demolition of the building fell behind schedule a bit, because it meant there wasn’t time to remove the carved mural which went along the outside of the building - it had to be just trashed but would have looked great on my house!
i did get some Chatwood bits though….

Faris23

Tom Gordon wrote
I was most disappointed when the demolition of the building fell behind schedule a bit, because it meant there wasn’t time to remove the carved mural which went along the outside of the building - it had to be just trashed but would have looked great on my house!
i did get some Chatwood bits though….

So they demolished the whole building ? Aagh I wish someone on this forum has photos of the old safe and vaults i think it would be so interesting. Does anyone have any photos?

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safeman

Faris23 wrote
So they demolished the whole building ? Aagh I wish someone on this forum has photos of the old safe and vaults i think it would be so interesting. Does anyone have any photos?

I did not say that the building had been demolished. There could be a major re-structuring taking place as Anglo American appear to have an intention to return here from their temporary location in Westminster.
Here is another photograph of the old basement. I would be surprised if there are any more.
Did you not pick up the previous basement shot from my post?

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Safeone

If you go to the Empire Safe Company website you will see a link to their excellent brochure library which features sales booklet copies of both the earlier tann diamond and the later TS5 variant

Redoubt

I would love one of the old Tann Diamond safes.
The massive slab door is very impressive.
I think the freight to NZ would just be a bit much.
What has always surprised me about the Tann Diamond, and the TS5 Diamond is the weight difference between the old and new models, for give or take the same size safes.
I am sure the claim would be that there is a vast improvement in technology which helps reduce the weight, but I would still have an old one over the newer version.

Safeone

Yes, one of my grail safes as well mate

Safeone

Dithered and missed out on this sometime ago. Later Ts5 diamond variant, being badly transported !

Huw Eastwood

I’ve got a miniature of the original tann diamond somewhere, blue body with grey door and working bolt work. Lot more manageable than the 4620 at 3 tons 🙁rofl):

Faris23

Huw Eastwood wrote
I’ve got a miniature of the original tann diamond somewhere, blue body with grey door and working bolt work. Lot more manageable than the 4620 at 3 tons 🙁rofl):

wow really? do you have any photos ?

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safeman

Redoubt wrote
I would love one of the old Tann Diamond safes.
The massive slab door is very impressive.

Redoubt, the super safe is a most impressive object. I believe that we could be seeing the last of the line.

The Tann Diamond was created for a specific purpose, mainly for the De Beers mining facilities in Botswana while also finding favour in the commercial market. Back in the 1930’s the Chatwood Safe Company also produced a super safe in the CB Quality with 10 inch drill and blowtorch protection specifically for the now extinct Commercial Bank of Scotland. More recently SLS came up with their GEM Quality which was awarded the top rating from the Underwriter’s Laboratories in the US .but like it’s predecessors had a very limited market.

Insurance Underwriters were unhappy with so many eggs in one basket and wanted the risk to be split. The reason is fairly obvious. The entire protection of these massive objects being entirely dependent on keys or a combination lock, both of which have been overcome in the past by human frailty through duress, complacency, and observation.

An example of the first is the Tonbridge 2006 Securitas cash centre vault robbery over £53 million by taking hostages. Complacency where the keys are left visible for a skilled person to read the combination of the heights of the steps, and observation where an employee concealed himself in the false ceiling and observed the combinations of the vault being dialled, Bank of America, Mayfair, 1975, £8 million.

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wylk

What kinds of locks were used on the Diamond? Some pictures seem to show a Sargent & Greenleaf combination lock with their locking dial (at times called an “auditor’s hasp” IIRC). Another picture shows a different lock. And of course it’s hard to tell make/model of the key lock from photos.

Redoubt

I agree Safeman.
Unfortunately the human part of the situation is the weakest link.
I would love to see what some of the current safe manufacturers would come up with if they were asked to design a similar style safe.

Gary Stephenson

S&G vault lock and tann?kromer? 10 lever plunger lock if I remember correctly on the original diamond.

Huw Eastwood

Gary Stephenson wrote
S&G vault lock and tann?kromer? 10 lever plunger lock if I remember correctly on the original diamond.

Think you’re right saying both Gary as some original diamonds have a single bit keyhole escutcheon for tann’s 10 lever plunger lock and some have double bitted escutcheons for Kromers, but not sure which kromer lock- protektor?

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