Old Havard Lock Company Handcuffs

Found these under a barn floor up on our ranch years ago, and i haven't been able to determine their age.. when i found them they were rusty locked together with a broken key inside.. theres not any serial number on them...

Neat find :)
I recently scoured online searching for information on the Harvard Lock Company. It was frustrating to not churn up anything about their history. I would have loved to have discovered things like their beginnings, and when they ended... But nada, zippo, nothing, lol!
Anyhow, from the pics I ran into online, it seems like they did a lot, if not most of their business, by filling Military contracts to make leg irons and handcuffs. Of that vintage, (1940's), it seems like the pics I've run across online, they seemed to have chain links that directly attached to the body of the handcuffs or leg irons, without a pivoting loop. Yours has those pivoting loops that the chain is attached to, so I wonder if that makes them date a wee bit later, like maybe late 1940's or into the 1950's?
Just guesing out loud, since this brand's history is a tough nut to crack.

Yes, you are correct. This is considered to be the 2nd Model of the Harvard Handcuffs. It would have been made in the 1950s. This style is a little more rae to find, than the military versions that were made in the 1940s.
-Richard Knip-

*rare

jimmy.jimenez.65 wrote: ↑

Jul 14, 2020

Neat find :)
I recently scoured online searching for information on the Harvard Lock Company. It was frustrating to not churn up anything about their history. I would have loved to have discovered things like their beginnings, and when they ended... But nada, zippo, nothing, lol!
Anyhow, from the pics I ran into online, it seems like they did a lot, if not most of their business, by filling Military contracts to make leg irons and handcuffs. Of that vintage, (1940's), it seems like the pics I've run across online, they seemed to have chain links that directly attached to the body of the handcuffs or leg irons, without a pivoting loop. Yours has those pivoting loops that the chain is attached to, so I wonder if that makes them date a wee bit later, like maybe late 1940's or into the 1950's?
Just guesing out loud, since this brand's history is a tough nut to crack.

Click to expand...

Agreed, it is a "tough nut to crack"! Circumstantial evidence loosely tied to the name of 'HARVARD' relief cast on the 1870's-1900's pancake lever locks could be the same company but I have found no real information on the company's origins except a reference in the Official Gazette of the US Patent Office in 1947 that states they claim their trademark's use back to 1938. Then a book reference in 1998 whereas the author stated he found no evidence of the company in existence at that time. I hazard to guess the company existed as early as the 1870's and shuttered its doors as late as the 1990's.

Further research could be conducted in Reading, PA or perhaps New York, NY historical commissions, libraries, abstract office and or local collectors that may reveal more data. 

Sadly being gone so long, I haven't found even one social media claimant to having worked at their offices. I did a more thorough presentation of facts and photos of artifacts in the thread "History of Harvard Lock Company?" if you would be interested.