An unusual Mid Victorian Red Morocco Leather Clad Despatch Box of oblong form measuring 48 x 16 x 14 cm, the chamfered top is embossed with Queen Victoria’s cipher and the initials A.D.M, and is mounted with a central swing handle. The black leather lined interior features raised sides and bears the maker’s name & address either side of the lock.
The purpose of the pair of studs in the right rim was designed to pin selected documents while the box was open, in order that they could be examined after the box was locked closed.
Condition: Good considering the box is more than 150 years of age. There is a certain amount of bruising & discolouring and some missing leather on the left rear corner,
The design of the lock was patented by George Davis.Being almost exclusively used for government dispatch boxes, protection for the sensitive documentation stored within required a further step in security.
Based in Windsor, Berkshire, the lock maker, George Davis patented his ‘Double Chambered’ lock in 1799.
The design of this lock works in the following way:
- A double-sided bitted key passes through the front aperture as normal, and then rotates anti-clockwise by 90 degrees.
- The key then enters a secondary aperture leading to the lower chamber of the lock mechanism. It is within this lower chamber that the actual locking mechanism resides.
- The key makes contact with a rotating disc inset with pins and raised ridges, and can then be turned further anti-clockwise, deploying the sliding bolt at the 100-180 degree mark.
- The key then completes its turn all the way past the 0 degree mark and back to the 90 degree mark (where the key had initially entered the lower chamber).
- The key is withdrawn through the secondary aperture, back into the upper chamber, and rotates clockwise by 90 degrees to be removed completely from the lock.
The purpose of this ‘Double Chambered’ lock is to conceal the actual wards and mechanism within the lower chamber by using a very simplified frontage and upper lock chamber that give away no clues as to what is contained within.
Being almost exclusively used for government dispatch boxes, protection for the sensitive documentation stored within required a further step in security.