Expert: Terry V Andreasen (Andy) - 9/24/2009

Question
QUESTION: I have found an old safe for $40. Can you tell me anything about it? It say's "Phoenix Salamander Safe  Lippincott & Barr   Successors to J.S. Strickler & Co  Pittsburgh" on the plate on front of it. Also it has the number 480 painted on the inside as well as the skelton key has the number 480 on it.

ANSWER: Patrick,

unfortunately, you have one those items that has been lost in history.  

I have trace notes about this company in 1854, but that's about it. The owners, William C. Barr and Joseph Lippencott appear to have had this company from around 1860 to 1870.  And I have a reference note that one of them worked for the Pittsburg Safe Company (1870-1920's).  But that is about it.

I would like to see some pictures of your safe.  Please send them to me at:  andy@securitysafeusa.com
My email can take up to about 5mb of pics at a time so you may have to send them in more than one email.

Andy

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I am trying to clean the safe up because it has alot of rust and chipped paint on it. The brass plate on the front is very dirty. What is the best way to clean that up? There are wooden shelves inside of it. The handle is broke off the door. I would like to have information on how to replace the outside handle or to know what it originally looked like. I will be e-mailing you pics once I have it cleaned up alittle better. Its probably 3ft tall 2 1/2 feet wide. Maybe you can guide me in the right direction in restoring it. Some of the steel plate on the front door has rusted through to the concrete filler. Is it possible to repair? It has 2 door hinges and a ring handle on each side. Plus is does have 4 steel wheels as well. Thank you for any suggestions......

Answer
Patrick,

Unfortunately, this is one of the safes that there is not a lot of history or photos of.  As I mentioned it has been lost in history.

One of my goals is to gather as much information as possible to make this information available.

Based on other safes at that time your safe would have been either a solid color or a two tone paint job, black edging with a second color - brown or green - in the section between the trim.  There usually wasn't any extra art work on the safe other than the plaque, the handle and key hole cover and possibly acorns on the hinges.

The cabinetry on the inside also was fairly plain.  These safes were basically an "office product" to protect records from fires.  The cities at the time were built largly of wood, fire departments consisted of bucket brigades, which meant that a fire could take out several city blocks or an entire city.  This meant that the only thing you would have left was what was stored in your safe.

You have to stop the rust or the safe will continue to rust away.  You can replace damaged plating to repair rusted areas.  You may have to cut smaller plates to fit them into areas and then stich weld them together.  When you finish with the paint, bondo, etc. you wouldn't even see the repairs.

andy