Hello Dannyb, yes your Milners is probably pre 1890s with its square corner construction. There are members who have old records and old catalogues so hopefully someone can narrow it down further for you.
not much else to add, it’s one of their common fire resisting models for protecting paper documents back in the day, the 212 on the cast brass plate referring to the boiling point of water in Farenheit. Don’t rely on it being fire resisting today though, most have deteriorated with age to the point of zero protection. It will have Milners’ own standard powder proof 6-point fixing lock, 7 levers, with either a pipe or pin type key. It unfortunately offers zero burglary protection either, so they can really only be used as an interest piece or focal point. They do like nice painted up with clean brass work though.
with regard to the inside of the door, this has been covered in detail before. If you search ‘Milners’, ‘Milners 212’ etc on the site, it should come up. I remember a member was able to make reproductions for the back of the doors, a couple of the variations from what I remember, but this was some time ago. It might take some considerable time as not all are regulars on the site. Anyway Good luck with it and let us all see how it turns out.
