P M Broach Assemblage

Thought I would start a new thread here. It relates to the recent thread by John Bushey regarding McKenzie Mitts.

February 1st 1975 was the date that P M Broach, 1802 NE Loop 410, San Antonio, Texas 78217 printed his book called ' P M Broach Assemblage'.
It was a book with 114 pages and catalogued his collection which included:

Handcuffs (136 items)
Leg Restraints (46 items)
Other Restraints or Restraints of Torture (69 items)
Keys (91 items)
Locks (449 items)
Books & Pamphlets (113 items)

There were actually more than 449 locks as several of the listing included 8 - 12 items.

All items were priced and I received my copy of the book in about October 1975. Many of the items I was interested in had 'already been sold' which brings me to the point that John mentionned - did Pat Broach actually have all the items, there are no illustrations of the handcuffs and leg irons but many of the locks are illustrated. I only bought 2 items from him in the end: Hiat Sheffield Pattern handcuffs and the Brass RCS leg irons (price paid $30 & $110 respectively). The prices on many items did not make sense for example (McKenzie Mitts $125, Palmers $95,Towers Bean $75, Lilly Irons $165).

Now I know that we are going back 35 years and there are probably only a handful of collectors left who may have had dealings with Mr Broach. Are you one of them?

CHRIS ::: in the very early 1980's i spoke with Mr. Broach several times & at that time all he had were the large to GIANT - 26 inch (mostly screw key) four ribbed to ten ribbed gate castle type locks.... as i do not remember for sure & as they were not really my thing, i believe that i purchased 3 or 4 of them & for the time period - they were not cheap.... joe

Thought I would start a new thread here. It relates to the recent thread by John Bushey regarding McKenzie Mitts.

February 1st 1975 was the date that P M Broach, 1802 NE Loop 410, San Antonio, Texas 78217 printed his book called ' P M Broach Assemblage'.
It was a book with 114 pages and catalogued his collection which included:

Handcuffs (136 items)
Leg Restraints (46 items)
Other Restraints or Restraints of Torture (69 items)
Keys (91 items)
Locks (449 items)
Books & Pamphlets (113 items)

There were actually more than 449 locks as several of the listing included 8 - 12 items.

All items were priced and I received my copy of the book in about October 1975. Many of the items I was interested in had 'already been sold' which brings me to the point that John mentionned - did Pat Broach actually have all the items, there are no illustrations of the handcuffs and leg irons but many of the locks are illustrated. I only bought 2 items from him in the end: Hiat Sheffield Pattern handcuffs and the Brass RCS leg irons (price paid $30 & $110 respectively). The prices on many items did not make sense for example (McKenzie Mitts $125, Palmers $95,Towers Bean $75, Lilly Irons $165).

Now I know that we are going back 35 years and there are probably only a handful of collectors left who may have had dealings with Mr Broach. Are you one of them?

Click to expand...

The Mitts listed in the Pat Broach book he did have. Price; $125. And yes, they did sell to a well known and respected collector
most of us know. He no longer has them. I was always told that Pat did not have all of the items. I was told the items priced a little
"higher" he had, and rarer items he may or may not have had. If offered them he could show his book and hopefully buy them at a fair price.
Not sure if that is true or not, but I've heard it from a few people who knew him and bought items from that book. I have a copy, it's a
nice book, but as Chris pointed out, not enought illustrations of the handcuffs. Best Wishes, John

Thought I would start a new thread here. It relates to the recent thread by John Bushey regarding McKenzie Mitts.

February 1st 1975 was the date that P M Broach, 1802 NE Loop 410, San Antonio, Texas 78217 printed his book called ' P M Broach Assemblage'.
It was a book with 114 pages and catalogued his collection which included:

Handcuffs (136 items)
Leg Restraints (46 items)
Other Restraints or Restraints of Torture (69 items)
Keys (91 items)
Locks (449 items)
Books & Pamphlets (113 items)

There were actually more than 449 locks as several of the listing included 8 - 12 items.

All items were priced and I received my copy of the book in about October 1975. Many of the items I was interested in had 'already been sold' which brings me to the point that John mentionned - did Pat Broach actually have all the items, there are no illustrations of the handcuffs and leg irons but many of the locks are illustrated. I only bought 2 items from him in the end: Hiat Sheffield Pattern handcuffs and the Brass RCS leg irons (price paid $30 & $110 respectively). The prices on many items did not make sense for example (McKenzie Mitts $125, Palmers $95,Towers Bean $75, Lilly Irons $165).

Now I know that we are going back 35 years and there are probably only a handful of collectors left who may have had dealings with Mr Broach. Are you one of them?

Click to expand...

Just a quick update, I have been in correspondence with Ray McKee, not too sure how many of you will remember the name but back in the 1970's Ray, Stan and myself all had collections of handcuffs of about 250 items and in a way competed with each other.
We must remember that emails etc. did not exist in those days and correspondence was via post so to reach a sale or trade would often take 4 weeks!! It would appear that Pat Broach did in fact have all the handcuffs and restraints that he catalogued and between Ray and Stan they bought most of the collection (Stan got the McKenzie Mitts). One item that remained was very badly described and Stan bought it, turned out to be the Kakola handcuffs and cost less than $100-
I am still trying to identify two sets of LI that were described as:
LR45 'British, a massive Williamsburg leg Iron. Made of wrought iron approx. 3/4" thick. Each cuff is secured with a padlock etc'
LR46 'Another massive Williamsburg LI ...... Numbers LR45 and LR46 were undoubtedly made by the same craftsman'
Does anyone know who Williamsburg was, the asking price was $200 and were the most expensive item listed.
Chris Gower

Thought I would start a new thread here. It relates to the recent thread by John Bushey regarding McKenzie Mitts.

February 1st 1975 was the date that P M Broach, 1802 NE Loop 410, San Antonio, Texas 78217 printed his book called ' P M Broach Assemblage'.
It was a book with 114 pages and catalogued his collection which included:

Handcuffs (136 items)
Leg Restraints (46 items)
Other Restraints or Restraints of Torture (69 items)
Keys (91 items)
Locks (449 items)
Books & Pamphlets (113 items)

There were actually more than 449 locks as several of the listing included 8 - 12 items.

All items were priced and I received my copy of the book in about October 1975. Many of the items I was interested in had 'already been sold' which brings me to the point that John mentionned - did Pat Broach actually have all the items, there are no illustrations of the handcuffs and leg irons but many of the locks are illustrated. I only bought 2 items from him in the end: Hiat Sheffield Pattern handcuffs and the Brass RCS leg irons (price paid $30 & $110 respectively). The prices on many items did not make sense for example (McKenzie Mitts $125, Palmers $95,Towers Bean $75, Lilly Irons $165).

Now I know that we are going back 35 years and there are probably only a handful of collectors left who may have had dealings with Mr Broach. Are you one of them?

Click to expand...

Just heard that Stan did not get the McKenzie Mitts, Ray got them and the Palmers.
Chris Gower

Thought I would start a new thread here. It relates to the recent thread by John Bushey regarding McKenzie Mitts.

February 1st 1975 was the date that P M Broach, 1802 NE Loop 410, San Antonio, Texas 78217 printed his book called ' P M Broach Assemblage'.
It was a book with 114 pages and catalogued his collection which included:

Handcuffs (136 items)
Leg Restraints (46 items)
Other Restraints or Restraints of Torture (69 items)
Keys (91 items)
Locks (449 items)
Books & Pamphlets (113 items)

There were actually more than 449 locks as several of the listing included 8 - 12 items.

All items were priced and I received my copy of the book in about October 1975. Many of the items I was interested in had 'already been sold' which brings me to the point that John mentionned - did Pat Broach actually have all the items, there are no illustrations of the handcuffs and leg irons but many of the locks are illustrated. I only bought 2 items from him in the end: Hiat Sheffield Pattern handcuffs and the Brass RCS leg irons (price paid $30 & $110 respectively). The prices on many items did not make sense for example (McKenzie Mitts $125, Palmers $95,Towers Bean $75, Lilly Irons $165).

Now I know that we are going back 35 years and there are probably only a handful of collectors left who may have had dealings with Mr Broach. Are you one of them?

Click to expand...

Don't want to take your post off topic, Chris, but it did bring back memories of collecting back in those early days. As you say, there was no email - no internet in fact. So it was difficult to make connections and find equipment here in England, never mind abroad. So we were reliant pretty much on airmail for our overseas contacts at a time when transatlantic phone calls were still costing around £1 a minute!

I clearly remember my first transatlantic deal, it was with Prynce E Wheeler - although at that time I had no idea he was (or would be) Joe Tanner's father-in-law. And if I had known, Joe Tanner would have meant nothing to me!! Yes, it took a few weeks to do the deal but it was all concluded very satisfactorily.

Shortly after that, armed with my copy of the Patterson-Smith catalogue (it was probably a photocopy from yourself Chris!) I called the firm (yes at phenomenal cost) and spoke to one of the partners - can't remember whether it was Mr Patterson or Mr Smith (and had they split up at that time?)- and he assured me that they still had in stock many of the items that were listed in their catalogue but that most of them were packed away in their basement and he had no idea when they would be unpacked. But what he did have readily available for sale was a pair of new H&R Supers. We agreed a price, I sent the money and the cuffs duly arrived - brand new, never out of the box. Those cuffs are still one of my prized pieces .

Ah well, it's a small world. Did I say the GOOD old days!

Mike Riccard
a.k.a. Mikeintightpants
Centre of England

Thought I would start a new thread here. It relates to the recent thread by John Bushey regarding McKenzie Mitts.

February 1st 1975 was the date that P M Broach, 1802 NE Loop 410, San Antonio, Texas 78217 printed his book called ' P M Broach Assemblage'.
It was a book with 114 pages and catalogued his collection which included:

Handcuffs (136 items)
Leg Restraints (46 items)
Other Restraints or Restraints of Torture (69 items)
Keys (91 items)
Locks (449 items)
Books & Pamphlets (113 items)

There were actually more than 449 locks as several of the listing included 8 - 12 items.

All items were priced and I received my copy of the book in about October 1975. Many of the items I was interested in had 'already been sold' which brings me to the point that John mentionned - did Pat Broach actually have all the items, there are no illustrations of the handcuffs and leg irons but many of the locks are illustrated. I only bought 2 items from him in the end: Hiat Sheffield Pattern handcuffs and the Brass RCS leg irons (price paid $30 & $110 respectively). The prices on many items did not make sense for example (McKenzie Mitts $125, Palmers $95,Towers Bean $75, Lilly Irons $165).

Now I know that we are going back 35 years and there are probably only a handful of collectors left who may have had dealings with Mr Broach. Are you one of them?

Click to expand...

I am P. M. (Pat) Broach's son and I can tell you that he owed every item listed in his catalog and we still retain many of them to this day.

PB

Thought I would start a new thread here. It relates to the recent thread by John Bushey regarding McKenzie Mitts.

February 1st 1975 was the date that P M Broach, 1802 NE Loop 410, San Antonio, Texas 78217 printed his book called ' P M Broach Assemblage'.
It was a book with 114 pages and catalogued his collection which included:

Handcuffs (136 items)
Leg Restraints (46 items)
Other Restraints or Restraints of Torture (69 items)
Keys (91 items)
Locks (449 items)
Books & Pamphlets (113 items)

There were actually more than 449 locks as several of the listing included 8 - 12 items.

All items were priced and I received my copy of the book in about October 1975. Many of the items I was interested in had 'already been sold' which brings me to the point that John mentionned - did Pat Broach actually have all the items, there are no illustrations of the handcuffs and leg irons but many of the locks are illustrated. I only bought 2 items from him in the end: Hiat Sheffield Pattern handcuffs and the Brass RCS leg irons (price paid $30 & $110 respectively). The prices on many items did not make sense for example (McKenzie Mitts $125, Palmers $95,Towers Bean $75, Lilly Irons $165).

Now I know that we are going back 35 years and there are probably only a handful of collectors left who may have had dealings with Mr Broach. Are you one of them?

Click to expand...

Well should we look foward to an updated catalogue any time soon