What safe is this? › Names on old safes

Names on old safes

The name on an old safe is often one that no longer trades on its own: many were merged long ago into firms that still exist, and some simply closed. Here is what became of some of them — with a source for every line.

Name on the badge	What became of it	Here
Hall's Safe & Lock Co.	Earlier: E. & J. L. Hall · Hall & Dodds · Hall, Carroll & Co. Joseph L. Hall worked under a string of partnership names in Pittsburgh and then Cincinnati from 1846, and incorporated Hall's Safe & Lock Co. in Cincinnati in 1867. In 1892 it was one of five firms merged to form Herring-Hall-Marvin. Source ›	—
Herring-Hall-Marvin Safe Co.	Formed in 1892 by merging five firms, Hall's among them. Its 1904 brochure for households, printed at Gustav Stickley's Craftsman Building, is in the archive. Source ›	Archive, 1904 ›
Herring, Farrel & Sherman	New York A New York maker whose own 1867 book on twenty-six years of fires is in the archive — marketing written as a chronicle.	Archive, 1867 ›
Mosler	Mosler, Bahmann & Co. · Mosler Safe & Lock Co. · Mosler Safe Co. Founded in Cincinnati in 1867 as Mosler, Bahmann & Co.; the family left in 1874 to start Mosler Safe & Lock Co., which moved to Hamilton, Ohio, in 1891. Mosler filed for bankruptcy in August 2001 and ceased operations; Diebold bought most of the company and announced programmes to support former Mosler customers. Source ›	—
Diebold	Diebold Bahmann Safe Co. · Diebold Safe & Lock Co. Founded in Cincinnati in 1859 as the Diebold Bahmann Safe Company, moved to Canton, Ohio, in 1872, renamed Diebold Safe & Lock Company in 1876 and Diebold, Incorporated in 1943. The company continues today as Diebold Nixdorf. Source ›	—
Cary Safe Co.	Buffalo, New York Made safes, vaults and safe-deposit boxes from 1878 to 1929. Most of its safes carried the buyer's family or business name, painted across the upper part on request. Source ›	Archive, 1899 ›
The Safe-Cabinet Company	Marietta, Ohio Sold under the slogan “the world's safest safe”. Its 1919 catalogue is in the archive in two library copies that differ in inserts and condition.	Archive, 1919 › Archive, 1919 (second copy) ›
Chubb	Chubb & Son's Lock and Safe Co. Founded in 1818 by Charles and Jeremiah Chubb. A patent for a burglar-resisting safe followed in 1835 and one for a fire safe in 1839; the company took the name Chubb & Son's Lock and Safe Company in 1882. In 2000 the safes business, with a licence for the Chubbsafes name, went to the Gunnebo Group. Source ›	Archive, 1875 ›
Hobbs Hart & Co.	Became a member of the Chubb Group in 1956. Source ›	—
Chatwood · Milner	Chatwood's Safe Depot · Chatwood-Milner Ltd Chatwood-Milner Ltd became a member of the Chubb Group in 1958. Chatwood's own catalogue of 1876 is in the archive. Source ›	Archive, 1876 ›
Fichet · Bauche	Paris · Gueux, near Reims Alexandre Fichet opened a locksmith's shop in Paris in 1825 and made his first all-steel fire safe in 1840; Auguste-Nicolas Bauche began making safes at Gueux in 1864. The two merged in 1967. Gunnebo bought Fichet-Bauche in December 1999, and since 2007 the name has been one of Gunnebo's brands. Source ›	—
Wertheim	Vienna Sold its safes as fireproof and demonstrated it by putting them in bonfires. In 1869 it marked its 20,000th safe by commissioning a polka from Josef Strauss; the title translates as “Fireproof!” The company is still trading. Source ›	Directory ›
Sargent & Greenleaf	Rochester, New York · a lock maker: the name is on the lock, not the safe James Sargent founded his lock company in 1857 and moved it to Rochester, New York, in 1864; Greenleaf joined as an equal partner in 1865. Still making safe locks. Source ›	Archive, 1870 › Archive, 1917 › Directory ›
Yale · Yale & Towne	on locks and padlocks Two catalogues in the archive, from 1880 and 1908.	Archive, 1880 › Archive, 1908 ›

A name that is missing is simply one this desk has not yet sourced, not one that does not matter. The table grows the way the rest of the site does: one checked line at a time.

Two cautions

A patent date is a floor, not a birthday. A door that lists patents up to 1878 was made in 1878 or later — possibly decades later.
A painted name may be the buyer's. Cary, for one, painted the customer's family or business name on most of the safes it sold.

Makers in the directory that were already trading before 1931

Fichet-Bauche (1825), Chubbsafes (1835), Wertheim (1852), Godrej & Boyce (1897), Kumahira (1898), Burg-Wächter (1920). If the badge carries one of these names, the company still exists: ask it first, with the serial number and proof of ownership.

If nothing matches

Look through the period catalogues in the archive — plate styles, model names and lock options help to date a safe — and then take your photographs to a technician.

What safe is this? IDENTIFY Catalogues of 1853–1925 ARCHIVE Who makes what, by country DIRECTORY Which lock is on it LOCKS

Where this comes from

Every source above was read on 25 Sep 2026. If one of them changes or disappears, the line that rests on it is corrected or removed — see method.