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John Wilkes, Lockmaker

Intriguing, mike, for 1680, though Mozart plays Eine Klein Nachtmusik 107 years later that than John Wilkes wonderful lock.

Maurice :cool:
 
A little more about John Wilkes and his locks from the Birmingham Gazette of January 1933.

It says that there are six examples in existence, and two others unsigned on the door of the Balcony Room at Durham, Gloucestershire, one which is possibly by Wilkes in the museum at Dresden.

E46BB905-6893-4D6C-850F-6E22BD17EA85.jpegA3B84D29-982F-4EDD-98AC-DD799FAE40FC.jpeg
 
In June 1892 reports of South Kensington Museum showing locks and keys from old French buildings, but produced by Johannes Wilkes de Birmingham in the 17th century.

"It is said that the collection of old locks and keys have nothing to equal it."
 
mikejee said:
A Birmingham lockmaker who lived in Old Square and fashioned the amazing lock shown here. in 1680:


(by coincidence there is today a locksmith of the same name - https://www.engineeringclicks.com/master-safe-cracker-john-wilkes/)
Click to expand...
Hello,
By a quite weird coincidence, I came across this page. The person you refer to would be me, John Wilkes Safe cracker.
Hi from Cape Town, but born in Manchester. Big fan of the Willenhall lock museum, having been shown around it a good few years ago by Derek Stetham (the then head of Yale training).
Very well aware of the lock referred to by my namesake, but not sure of the link - also true for John Wilkes, Lord Mayor of London, after whom John Wilkes Booth was named as an honorific middle name for his campaign against slavery - going to have to research some lineage here...
Anyway, these days I no longer open Safes (on a daily basis), but design and make high security locks, which, in the true sense of the word, makes me a locksmith - I don't really know any others - the rest can really be referred to as security technicians. No disrespect intended at all, just a semantical thing.
In any event, Cheers,
John
 
John Wilkes 101 said:
Hello,
By a quite weird coincidence, I came across this page. The person you refer to would be me, John Wilkes Safe cracker.
Hi from Cape Town, but born in Manchester. Big fan of the Willenhall lock museum, having been shown around it a good few years ago by Derek Stetham (the then head of Yale training).
Very well aware of the lock referred to by my namesake, but not sure of the link - also true for John Wilkes, Lord Mayor of London, after whom John Wilkes Booth was named as an honorific middle name for his campaign against slavery - going to have to research some lineage here...
Anyway, these days I no longer open Safes (on a daily basis), but design and make high security locks, which, in the true sense of the word, makes me a locksmith - I don't really know any others - the rest can really be referred to as security technicians. No disrespect intended at all, just a semantical thing.
In any event, Cheers,
John
Click to expand...
Just a little clarity: John Wilkes Booth was NOT against slavery. When President Lincoln freed the slaves, that infuriated Booth and that is one of the reasons that Lincoln was assassinated by Booth. There is more to the plot but too far off topic!
 
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