Old Safe Brands: A List of Antique Safe Makers by Country

Found a name on the door and can’t place it? This is our list of old safe brands from Britain, America, Canada, Australia and the Continent: where each firm worked, when, and the wording on the plate that tells you roughly how old your safe is.

Key takeaways

The maker’s name is usually on a brass or painted plate on the door, on the lock cover or on the inside of the door. The town and the exact firm name on it are your best dating clues.
“Ltd” or “Limited” on a British plate means the firm had become a limited company, so the safe is no older than that year. Each entry below gives the year where we have it.
The name on a plate isn’t always the maker: patents (Wilder’s Salamander), locks (Chubb, Bramah) and dealers’ names turn up on other firms’ safes.
Most old safes in Australia and New Zealand were imported from Britain, but Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney had makers of their own.

How to use this list

Start with the plate. Copy down every word on it, including the town, the street and any “Patent” line, because a change of address or company name is often the only date you’ll get. Then look the name up below. Where a maker has its own page on this site, the link takes you to the full history, the plate wordings by period and what’s known about serial numbers.

No plate at all? That’s common: plates were unscrewed, painted over or swapped. Our guide on how to date an old safe covers the clues in the construction, and the “How old is my safe?” tool walks you through them question by question.

British safe makers

Britain’s safe trade had two centres. London had the big names with City showrooms, and the Black Country (Wolverhampton, West Bromwich and Birmingham) had the works that turned out cast-iron and wrought-iron safes, some of them for export to Australia. Liverpool and Bolton add Milner and Chatwood.

Chubb	London and Wolverhampton, locks from 1818, safes from the 1830s. “Chubb & Son’s Lock and Safe Co. Ltd” dates from 1882. Owned Hobbs Hart from 1956 and Chatwood-Milner from 1958.
Milner	Liverpool, from c.1814 to 1971. “Milner & Son” before 1874, “Milners’ Safe Co. Ltd” after. Phoenix Safe Works, Smithdown Lane, from 1853.
John Tann	London, iron chests by 1790. Reliance and Anchor Reliance models; “John Tann Ltd” from 1912. Robert Tann’s “Defiance” and George Tann’s “Trusty” were separate family firms.
Ratner	Bromley-by-Bow, East London, from 1888–1890; Ratner Safe Co. Ltd from 1895–96. Bodies bent from one plate; later the Trustee range.
Chatwood and Chatwood-Milner	Bolton, then Shrewsbury from 1925–26. Bank safes and strongroom doors. Chatwood-Milner from 1956 to 1971.
Hobbs, Hart & Co.	London, founded 1851 or 1852 by A. C. Hobbs, the American who picked the Chubb and Bramah locks. Bank, bullion and jewel safes and strongrooms. “Ltd” from 8 July 1887; part of Chubb from 1956.¹^,²
Samuel Withers & Co.	Park Works, West Bromwich, established 1843 by George Withers. “Ltd” from 1909. Safes and strongrooms; still advertising in the 1950s.³ Not the same firm as Thomas Withers & Sons of Sandwell Road, which lost a court case against it in 1927.
George Price	Cleveland Safe and Lock Works, Wolverhampton, from 1840; safe patent 1855. Became a limited company in 1886, wound up in 1888, trading again as George Price’s Safe Co. by 1914.⁴
Cyrus Price & Co.	Wednesfield Road, Wolverhampton, established c.1839. “Ltd” from 1895. Bent steel safes, strongroom doors and deed chests.⁵
Whitfields Safe & Door Co.	Viaduct Works, Oxford Street, Birmingham. Began as Samuel Whitfield and Sons (“Whitfield’s New Patent Safes” in 1869); “Safe & Door Co.” by 1886. Bought the Bramah business about 1900, taken over by Milners in 1945.⁶
Edwin Cotterill & Co.	Birmingham, from 1840. Mainly locks at first. Climax Works, Vittoria Street, by 1870; Lower Tower Street by 1922, when fire and burglar-proof safes were a speciality.⁷
Jacob Cartwright & Son	Phoenix Works, Roebuck Street, West Bromwich, from 1844. Fire and thief-resisting safes and strongroom doors (1914). Not to be confused with Milner’s Phoenix Safe Works in Liverpool.⁸
Thomas Skidmore & Son	Bilston Road, Wolverhampton. Advertising safes in 1892. Plates read “Nonconduction Fire and Thiefproof Safemakers”, and some reached Australia.⁹^,¹⁰
Bramah	London, famous for locks since 1784. Steel safes appear only in 1914, when Whitfields owned the firm. A Bramah lock on a safe doesn’t make it a Bramah safe.¹¹

There were many more small Black Country firms, and plenty of ironmongers who put their own name on a bought-in safe. If yours isn’t here, the British dating clues in our dating guide (London postal districts, “Ltd”, patent dates) still work.

American safe makers

The American trade began in New York with iron chests and the Salamander safe of the 1840s, then moved west to Ohio. Cincinnati and Hamilton, Ohio, became the centre of it, which is why so many old American safes trace back to a handful of Ohio firms and their mergers.

Mosler	Cincinnati from 1867, Hamilton, Ohio, from 1891 until 2001. Bank vault doors, office and record safes. Mosler published its own serial number list.
Diebold	Cincinnati from 1859, Canton, Ohio, from 1872. “Diebold Safe & Lock Co.” 1876–1943, “Diebold, Inc.” after. Bought York (1946) and Herring-Hall-Marvin (1959).
Herring, Marvin and Herring-Hall-Marvin	Herring & Co. (New York, from 1841) and Marvin merged with Hall’s in 1892; works at Hamilton, Ohio, from 1896. Bought by Diebold in 1959.
Hall’s Safe & Lock Co.	Pittsburgh in the mid-1840s, then Cincinnati. Lavishly painted doors and time locks. A Hall’s plate means 1892 or earlier.
Victor Safe & Lock Co.	Cincinnati, organised 1885, later Norwood, Ohio. Small painted household and farmers’ safes. Part of the Safe-Cabinet Company from 1920.
Cary Safe Co.	Buffalo, New York, from 1878 (firm’s own account). Office, jewellers’ and round “screw door” bank safes.
York Safe & Lock Co.	York, Pennsylvania, 1882–1946. Office safes, bank vaults and round vault doors. “Division of Diebold” means 1946 or later.
Meilink	Toledo, Ohio, from 1897. Home safes, wall safes and record safes; “Meilink Steel Safe Co.” from about 1920.
Detroit Safe Co.	Detroit, from July 1865 to the early 1900s. Fire and burglar-proof safes, vault doors, even jail cells.
Schwab Safe Co.	Lafayette, Indiana, from 1872 (firm’s own account) to 2008, when SentrySafe bought it. Fire-proof safes and jewellers’ safes.
Hamilton Safe	Cincinnati area, founded 1967. Bank safes, vaults and deposit boxes; not an antique maker, despite the Hamilton, Ohio, name.
Macneale & Urban	Cincinnati, making safes from 1855; Macneale & Urban Co. from 1870; Hamilton, Ohio, from 1890. Receivership in 1903, plant bought by Mosler in 1907. “Cincinnati” on the plate suggests before 1890.¹²^,¹³
Safe-Cabinet Co. and Remington Rand	Marietta, Ohio, founded 1905. Light insulated steel “Safe-Cabinets” for office records. Joined the Rand group in 1926; later plates read “Safe-Cabinet Division, Remington Rand”.¹⁴^,¹⁵^,¹⁶
Shaw-Walker	Muskegon, Michigan, office furniture maker founded in 1899 (1903 in some sources). Sold “Shaw-Walker Safes” by 1925 and insulated “Fire-Files” later. Usually an office record safe, not a bank safe.¹⁷^,¹⁸
Ely-Norris Safe Co.	Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Round manganese-steel “cannonball” bank chests from the early 1900s, some sold inside York safes. Lost a famous patent case to Mosler in 1927.¹⁹^,²⁰^,²¹
Lillie	Lewis Lillie of Troy, New York, chilled cast-iron safes from 1851. Moved to Mineral Vale, Pennsylvania, in 1865; Lillie Safe & Iron Co. from 1867; the later Jersey City works burned in 1870. “Troy, N.Y.” on the plate means before about 1865.²²
Barnes	Two firms: Barnes Safe & Lock Co. of Pittsburgh, active by 1871, and R. L. Barnes of Richmond, Virginia, opened 1892. The city on the plate tells you which.²⁰^,²³
Jesse Delano	New York, iron chests from 1825 at 97 Water Street; Delano and his sons made safes until 1859. A Delano chest is older than the plaster-filled Salamander era.²⁰
Valentine & Butler	New York, 90 and 92 Maiden Lane in 1855 (as Holmes, Valentine & Butler). “Alum Patent, Mar. 27, 1855” on the plate.²⁰^,²⁴
Sentry	Rochester, New York, from 1930 as Brush-Punnett. Stamped-steel fire boxes and home safes: 20th century, not antique.²⁵

Did you know?

“Wilder’s Patent Salamander” isn’t a maker. The plaster-filled Salamander safe was patented in 1843 and assigned to Enos Wilder, and Silas Herring, Rich, Stearns & Marvin and B. G. Wilder himself all made safes under it, so the same words turn up on plates by several New York firms.²⁰

Canadian safe makers

We’ve found only two Canadian makers of any size. Most other old safes in Canada came from the United States or Britain, so check the American and British lists too.

J. & J. Taylor	Toronto Safe Works, from 1855. Fire and burglar-proof safes, bank safes, vault doors. “Limited” from 1912; taken over by Mosler in the late 1950s.
Goldie & McCulloch	Galt, Ontario. A foundry and engine works that made safes from about 1868. “Goldie McCulloch & Co.” before 1891, “Co. Ltd” after. The safe business was kept out of the 1923 sale to Babcock & Wilcox and had “dwindled to practically nothing” by 1937.²⁶^,²⁷

Australian safe makers

If you’re in Australia or New Zealand, the odds are your old safe came from England. Milner safes were certainly in use in Victoria: Museums Victoria holds a Milner “212 Patent” plate of about 1857 from the Flinders Street stationmaster’s safe.²⁸ But local firms did grow up, and their plates are worth looking for. Our guide to Australian safe makers covers Simpson, Makutz, Ajax and the British agents in full.

A. Simpson & Son	Adelaide, a metalworks founded in the 1850s; “& Son” from 1864. “Adelaide Patent Fire and Thief Proof Safes”, later sold as able to resist dynamite. Safes were only one of many products.²⁹^,³⁰
Makutz	Bela Makutz. Makutz & Barke, Reliable Safe Works, South Melbourne (letterhead of 1893); a silver medal at the 1888 Melbourne Centennial Exhibition. Later B. Makutz in Perth. A partner’s name on the plate points to Melbourne.³¹^,³²
Ajax Safe Co.	58 and 60 Alma Street, Darlington, Sydney. “Established in 1890”, according to a newspaper article quoted by collectors; it claimed to supply Federal and State governments.³³
Chubb’s Australian Co.	Sydney, set up in 1897 to sell Chubb safes across Australia. Its own works at Waterloo, Sydney, opened in 1921, so an older Chubb in Australia was almost certainly made in England.³⁴^,³⁵

European safe makers

Continental safes turn up in Britain and America more often than you’d think, brought over by émigrés, businesses and dealers. These are the names we’re asked about most.

Fichet and Bauche	France. Fichet, Paris, from 1825; Bauche, Gueux near Reims, from 1864. Merged as Fichet-Bauche in 1967.
S. J. Arnheim	Berlin, founded 1833, called Germany’s first safe factory. Works at Badstraße, Gesundbrunnen, by the early 1890s. The Jewish-owned firm was taken from the family in 1938.³⁶^,³⁷
F. Wertheim & Comp.	Vienna, founded 1852. “F. Wertheim & Wiese” until 1863, “& Comp.” after. About 10,000 safes made by 1863 and 40,000 by 1877, a rough guide if a number is stamped on yours.³⁸
Bode-Panzer	Hannover, founded as Bode & Troue (1868 in most sources, 1858 in one). Merged with Panzer AG of Berlin in 1924 as Bode Panzer AG.³⁹^,⁴⁰
Lips	Dordrecht, Netherlands, from 1870–71. Only safes and locks from 1899. Taken over by Chubb in 1971; “Chubb Lips” plates are 1992 or later.⁴¹^,⁴²

When the name on the plate isn’t the maker

Before you go hunting for a firm that doesn’t exist, check which of these you’re looking at. It’s one of the most common mix-ups in the messages we get.

It has a Chubb lock, so it’s a Chubb safe.

Chubb and Bramah sold locks to other makers. Look for the maker’s plate on the door, not the name on the keyhole cover.

“Salamander” is the name of the maker.

It’s the name of a patented fire-proof filling used by several New York makers from the 1840s.

The name on the plate is always the factory.

Ironmongers, dealers and agents often put their own name on a bought-in safe. A shop address in your own town is a good sign of that.

A Hamilton safe is an old Hamilton, Ohio, safe.

Hamilton Safe dates from 1967. Old safes made in Hamilton, Ohio, carry the Mosler, Herring-Hall-Marvin or Macneale & Urban name.

Takeovers matter too. Victor became part of the Safe-Cabinet Company and then Remington Rand; York and Herring-Hall-Marvin ended up with Diebold; Hobbs Hart, Milner and Chatwood all ended up with Chubb. A later name on an old design usually means a later safe.

Found the maker? What next

Age

How old is it?

Try the “How old is my safe?” tool, and see what a serial number can and can’t tell you.

Weight

How heavy is it?

Measure the outside and use our safe weight calculator before anyone tries to lift it.

Value

Is it worth anything?

Maker matters less than condition, size and whether it opens. Our guide on what old safes are worth explains why.

Can’t find the name, or can’t read the plate? Send us photos of the plate, the door and the lock with the outside measurements, and we’ll do our best to tell you who made it and roughly when.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find out who made my old safe?

Look for a plate on the front of the door, on the lock cover or inside the door, and note the town and the exact firm name. Then check it against the list above. If there’s no plate, the construction, lock and any patent dates can still narrow it down.

What are the most common old safe brands?

In Britain and Australia, Milner, Chubb, Tann, Ratner and Chatwood-Milner. In the United States, Mosler, Diebold, Herring-Hall-Marvin, Hall’s, Victor, Cary and York. In Canada, J. & J. Taylor.

Which old safe brands are worth the most?

Restored, painted American parlour safes (Marvin, Herring, Hall’s) and round “cannonball” bank safes have made thousands of dollars at auction. Most large, plain safes fetch little, and condition and a working lock matter more than the name.

Are any of these makers still in business?

A few names survive inside larger groups: Chubbsafes and Tann within Gunnebo, Diebold as Diebold Nixdorf, Fichet as the Fichet group and Wertheim in Austria. Their records are a different matter: for most old makers, nobody knows where the ledgers went.

Sources:

Grace’s Guide, “Hobbs, Hart and Co”. ↩︎
AIM25 / The London Archives, “Hobbs Hart and Company Limited” (founding given as 1852). ↩︎
Grace’s Guide, “Samuel Withers and Co”. ↩︎
Grace’s Guide, “George Prices Safe Co”, citing adverts of 1858–1867 and the London Gazette, 24 April 1888. ↩︎
Grace’s Guide, “Cyrus Price and Co”. ↩︎
Grace’s Guide, “Whitfields Safe and Door Co” and “Samuel Whitfield and Sons”. ↩︎
Grace’s Guide, “Edwin Cotterill and Co”. ↩︎
Grace’s Guide, “Jacob Cartwright and Son”, citing the 1914 Whitaker’s Red Book. ↩︎
Grace’s Guide, “Thomas Skidmore and Son” (1892 advert). ↩︎
D. G. Moncur, “Thomas Skidmore and Sons, Wolverhampton” (2022), plate on a safe in Beechworth, Victoria. ↩︎
Grace’s Guide, “Bramah and Co”, citing the 1914 Whitaker’s Red Book. ↩︎
Waterville Historical Society, “A Safe Story” (2022). ↩︎
The Walking Tour Company, “Macneale and Urban Safe”, Hamilton, Ohio. ↩︎
Marietta Times, “Fire-proof: the Safe-Cabinet Company” (December 2024). ↩︎
oz.Typewriter, on the Rand Kardex mergers, giving 1 January 1926 for the Safe-Cabinet Company. ↩︎
Remington Rand, Safe-Cabinet Division, Certified Safety for Unassured Business Assets (Buffalo, 1934), via Internet Archive. ↩︎
Nailhed, “A way of doing business” (2014), on Shaw-Walker of Muskegon; Hagley Museum gives 1903. ↩︎
Shaw-Walker advertisement, Credit Monthly, November 1925, via Internet Archive. ↩︎
New Jersey Industrial Directory (1909), Perth Amboy. ↩︎
Early Office Museum, “Antique Safes”. ↩︎
Mosler Safe Co. v. Ely-Norris Safe Co., 273 U.S. 132 (decided 17 January 1927). ↩︎
T. S. Morris, Ephraim and Pamela (Converse) Morris: their ancestors and descendants (Chicago, 1894), pp. 79–81. ↩︎
Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, R. L. Barnes safe, via Google Arts & Culture. ↩︎
Scientific American, 17 November 1855, via Internet Archive. ↩︎
Orleans Hub, “Albion native founded Sentry Safe company” (gives 1931); Wikipedia gives 1930. ↩︎
Babcock & Wilcox Canada: A History, 1844–1977 (1987), via Internet Archive. ↩︎
Ingenium, safe by Goldie & McCulloch Co. Ltd., object 1977.0004.001. ↩︎
Museums Victoria, Milner plate, circa 1857, from the Flinders Street Stationmaster’s safe. ↩︎
SA History Hub, A. Simpson & Son, after the firm’s centenary history Today Not Tomorrow (1954). ↩︎
National Portrait Gallery (Australia), “Alfred Simpson”. ↩︎
Museums Victoria, Makutz & Barke letter and pamphlet, 1893. ↩︎
State Library of Western Australia, B. Makutz premises, Perth. ↩︎
Newspaper article (Trove 159297889) on the Ajax Safe Co., as quoted on antique-locks.com (2017). We haven’t seen the original or its date. ↩︎
AIM25 / The London Archives, Chubb and Son Ltd (factory built 1921). ↩︎
The Chubb Archive, “Office locations and more recent history” (Sydney plant by 1926). ↩︎
Landesdenkmalamt Berlin, Badstraße 40–41, S. J. Arnheim safe factory. ↩︎
Wikipedia (German), “Simon Joel Arnheim”. ↩︎
Neue Deutsche Biographie, “Wertheim, Franz Freiherr von”. ↩︎
Niedersächsische Bibliographie, Louis Bode (1839–1900), after the Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon (2002). ↩︎
Callies Berlin, “The building” (Bode Panzer AG, 1924; gives 1858 for the founding). ↩︎
Dordrecht 366 (day-by-day history of Dordrecht), sample pages, entry for 28 February 1899. ↩︎
Wikipedia (Dutch), “Lips (sloten)”. ↩︎

Old Safe Brands: A List of British, American, Canadian, Australian and European Safe Makers