Unknown / guest 21 Nov 2008
#15This weekend I met with a fellow collector that I have known for many years and sold/traded many items with in the past - several trades I have regretted for many years but we are in the process of coming to a deal. Meanwhile he bought a few interesting items to show me including a Hiatt 1980 pattern hybrid cuff. The one that was in the Hiatt collection and that is shown in Alex's book was just a single cuff that had no mechanism to it. This one is in good working order and is double locked via the key way. The key will only fit in the vertical hole when the cuffs are single locked, it is the turned 1/3rd turn clockwise and taken out of the angled keyhole. It is made of aluminium and marked HIATT 1980 MADE IN ENGLAND. It is attached to an early Hiatt 'Snap-on' cuff marked simply HIATT.
The other interesting item is yet another variation of the 1960 pattern. It takes a barrel key, is single locking only but does have quite close
tolerances.It is marked HIATTS 1960 on one cuff and BRITISH MADE PAT. PEND. on the other cuff. On the back both cuffs are neatly stamped P C THOMPSON 1258. Has any else see either of these models or know of any others??
I would also be interested to know whether the Patent Office actually keep copies of Patent Applications and whether these are available for inspection? It may be the original Patent Pend. was this barrel model rather than the usual one??
Chris Gower
1980 Pictures
1960 Pictures
Final try. Joe if this doen't work feel free to delete these attempts to post
Hi,
As Mike has mentioned the missing Hiatt collection i'll now recount my only knowleadge of the subject.
Ive mentioned this in private to one or two people in the past who visit the forum.
In 2006 I purchased a pair of handcuffs via ebay from a seller who had several pairs of handcuffs listed. "His account is still active". The seller stated that he was selling them on behalf of a friend.
The following week the same seller listed a pair of Hiatt Bean cuffs. I watched the auction for 5 days then suddenly the listing disappeared. I assumed someone had persuaded the seller to sell direct. Slightly annoyed at missing the chance to bid I contacted the seller using the link from my previous purchase to see why the listing had gone. I did this because around this time a number of cuffs seemed to disappear from various ebay sites. Two Lyon Prestos from
ebay.fr and Horst Moabit's and a Berliner from ebay.dl The seller told me he had removed the listing because he had lost the key during the time the auction was running but that he would relist them when he found it. He mentioned that he had a large collection of cuffs to sell on behalf of his friend and was planning to space out the sales over the coming weeks. The seller offered to forward my mobile phone number on to his friend who owned the handcuff collection.
A few days later I received a call from the actual owner of the collection who midway through our conversation happened to mention that he "owned" the Hiatt collection. He claimed to be an ex police officer who either lived or worked overseas I now can't remember which. He was well spoken and sounded very confident in himself. He mentioned that he was back in the UK for only a couple of weeks before returning overseas. He was selling off everything except the Hiatt collection which he had placed into storage. He had a large number of Chubb Escort cuffs which he was prepared to sell all with letters of authenticity linking each cuff to a famous criminal. I had suspicions about the validity of these claims of authenticity and he was asking premium prices for them.
He certainly new a considerable amount about UK and US handcuffs quoting model numbers etc without hesitation. He also mentioned things about Hiatt which I should imagine very few people new.
For example he was confident that Hiatt had made two distinct production runs of its Sheffield Pattern cuffs. The first in the early 1900's and then again in the late 1950's and that the key style differed slightly between the two. He claimed to have examples of as well as variation of every restraint Hiatt had every produced.
Our conversation ended abruptly after I asked him about how he had obtained possession if not legal ownership of the Hiatt collection. My question obviously troubled him and I have regretted my lack of diplomacy ever since.
I still have his Christian name and the mobile number which he used to call me. I have never heard from him since and apart from the initial pair of cuffs purchased from his friends ebay auction I have never bought anything from him.
I do believe that this person does have all or part of a collection which was owned by Hiatts. I think the Hiatt Bean cuffs may well have been privately purchased away from ebay as I doubt the lost key story. They certainly have never been listed since.
Personally I would like to see this collection gifted or acquired by a museum in the UK and not be spilt up. I'm sure these cuffs will surface in the fullness of time and I hope they don't disappear underground again. He was certainly aware or the interest in and value of the items he possessed.
RMP(Mark)
