Cuff of the Day for May 6. Elijah Rickard

This week I would like to continue cover a different manufacturer each day covering various countries as we go. 
Please send me your suggestions for next week.

Here is the schedule for this week
Monday - Stotz
Tuesday  - Griffin
Wednesday -  Elijah Rickard
Thursday - Konepaja Voima  and Harrington & Richardson
Friday - Chubb
Saturday - Tower
Sunday - Modern American Handcuffs that never really succeeded. - Gotcha, Trilock, Goncz . . . .

Elijah Rickard (b. 1798 - d. 1862) is recognized as the first manufacturer of American handcuffs and the first manufacturer of railroad padlocks for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first American railroad.
His handcuffs and leg irons used a screw mechanism and were very well made.  Cuffs and keys were produced with matching numbers and were about equally divided between right and lift handed threads.

Here is a picture of my set of ER handcuffs.  My set has a left handed key.  Cuff and key are numbered 1020.

Lovely cuffs, and as Joe says, very well made.
I only have one set in my collection and these are the cuffs I paid the most for in my entire collection. This set takes a right threaded key. The stampings are very crispy and this is likely one of the best sets preserved. Marked "161" on cuffs and key.

Lars

From the 1963 booklet Prominent Men of Shepardstown During its First 200 Years by A.D. Kenamond - Jefferson County Historical Society

MICHAEL RICKARD
Michael Rickard was one of a considerable number of German artisans who settled here during the last half of the 18th century, and lived on what has often been called Main Street. In fact they came in such numbers that the street was soon called “the German street,” which somelocal historians have suggested was the street first called Queen Street by Thomas Shepherd. Mention of a bridge over the Town Run on Queen Street appearing in later records would indicate this. Council minutes also refer to repairs on upper Queen Street. In recent years no one seems to have discovered when Michael Rickard was born or where he is buried. He lived in the house, a log structure later cased with brick, now owned and occupied by Miss Sallie Jones. Conrad Boyer bought the lot in 1785 for 20 pounds, erected a house thereon, built a workshop nearby, and lived there until his death about twenty years later. Michael Rickard was a whitesmith by trade, a whitesmith being one who made locks, hardware, guns and small implements of unforged metal, while a blacksmith used a forge, shod horses and made ironwork for wagons and such. He succeeded Conrad Boyer as a whitesmith, and in 1810 got a deed for the dwelling from the widow Boyer for 285 pounds. He had probably taken over the shop of Conrad Boyer by 1795, the date he put on the escutcheon now protecting the keyhole of the tower door of the third, or “new,” Lutheran church. The escutcheon has a German inscription, “In Jahr Unsrem Herrn 1795 Bewahre Deinen Fuss Wan du in Das Haus des Herrn gehest,” by which he meant to say “In the Year of our Lord 1795 Guard thy foot when thou goest into the House of the Lord.” The Rickards were Lutherans.
Michael Rickard invented the famous screw lock, a peculiar caliper-shaped lock which can be opened only by screwing a key into place. Thousands of them were made in the Rickard shop, but for some years they have been a collector’s item. The first bore the stamp M R, then E R for Elijah Rickard (1795-1879),and later J R for James Rickard (1828-1909). For many years they were used by the B. & 0. Railroad for switch-locks. J. H. Zittle’s “Correct Account of the John Brown Invasion at Harpers Ferry” states that the handcuffs put on John Brown had been made by James Rickard

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/695 ... ah-rickard

These have no markings with a left handed thread.... key by Ian McColl

Here is a single shackle, the same size as a leg irons shackle, but with out the eyelet for the chain.

Here is my half cuff and a regular cuff.  You can see where the chain loop on the half cuff was ground off and it most likely used as a padlock.

 I am keeping a list of the known ER cuffs, leg irons and shackles.  The list was published, without the owners names, in the Forum several months ago.  If you have any ER, no locks, and are not on the list, and if you have not received a copy of the list you are not on the list.  Please contact me if you would like to add your ER to this short list. 

Ron

Certainly the ER Handcuffs are within my top ten favourites. My set have a low serial number 8 with original key #8. The key turns clockwise to open.

Chris, I do not have you on the list.  My set of cuff is also a 6 so one of us could be a 9.  Please email me and we can set up a phone chat.  ronspitz@msn.com

Just went through my ER padlocks and I have about nine, not all marked.  I have three very large and heavy ones.  The one pictured here is marked ER  6  and the key is also marked 6.

The lock looks like it may have been brass plated at one time.

Chris, sorry I did not recognize the posted name.  I do have you on the list.  Thought we had found another unknown ER.

Ron

No problem Ron, had problems with my original name and had to re-register! So chriscuffs became chriscuffs6! Not sure who chriscuffs1-5 are!
Chris G

viewtopic.php?p=25261#p25261

Some previous discussions about the Rickards Family and their cuffs from almost 9 years ago exactly

I had probs with my original name too, so have re-registered

I'm happy to add this picture to this old thread. I just love the E.R.

Lars