Mattatuck value?

I’m a retired Police Officer and collect all types of restraints. Many years ago a charitable organization called saying they had items donated that they could not sell and these handcuffs were part of the donations they received.  From what I saw of the items donated it was from an estate of another Police Officer from long ago.  I have kept these Mattatucks as I was given them years ago.  Including an original key tied to the cuffs with an old shoe lace. From what I can tell these cuffs are fully operational and in good shape.

My question is what would be a value for these cuffs?  Most of the sales or auctions I can find ask me to sign up for something before they will tell me anything more.  Help?

Hello, Philcheck! The Mattatuck Handcuffs you have are a very common handcuff to come across for sale. They show up on sites like Ebay, quite often. A decent, fully working set of Mattatucks, Generally pulls about $100 to $150 on Ebay, depending on condition. A fully working set is a set that can lock and unlock, enter double lock mode and enter "primed" position, where the cuff's arms will enter and exit the lock case, without engaging the ratcheting mechanism.  To help sort out each of the modes and how to properly operate the locking mech and the key, I have included a letter I send out with any Mattatuck Handcuffs I have ever sold through the years.

Now, there is an issue with your set of Mattatucks. The one cuff, clearly shows the pins that hold the cover on the cuff's body. In the factory, the pins used are bolts that are screwed into place, then the heads are ground off of the bolts and the cuffs are smoothed and polished. They come out looking like the other cuff, showing no signs of the pins even being there. You can also see the hole in the location of the hinge pin in the compromised cuff. These are all signs, of this side of this set of cuffs having been taken apart at one time. Normally this would have been done to make a repair to this set of cuffs. Which of course, will lower the value for your set, despite the overall great condition they are in, besides the obvious signs of repairs having been made in their past. As far as an actual value for your particular set, that is very difficult to put a value on a repaired cuff. It comes down to what a person is willing to pay for the cuffs in their current condition. With a rare cuff, a repaired cuff may hold a little bit of value. But, with the Mattatuck being a common cuff to find, their value is going to be pretty low. It would one of those pick a value, under the regular sales price for a Mattatuck, list them and see what happens, kind of deals. Its truly going to be a shot in the dark. On the upside, yours does appear to have an original factory key still with the cuffs. That may bump their value up some? I would feel safe listing at the $100 range and seeing what they bid up to. Had that one cuff not have been so poorly repaired, these could have pulled upwards of $200, i would think, due to their otherwise great condition?

Sorry to be the bearer of a bit of bad news on your cuffs. With the one side still looking like it did from the factory, you may want to try making a shadow box display of them and putting the repaired side, face down, in the display, to help hide the damage. List it as "For display only", when selling them. Depending on how you do the background for your display and the type of box you use, you could fetch a bit of money for them? Here is an example pic of a shadow box display from my collection, that we made using an Adams Handcuff. We used the patent drawings and did some cutting and pasting editing on a computer to print out the background sheet, which we laminated to give it a more professional appearance. We also used a distressed paper to help complete the aged look of the display. My display does not include an original key, as I my set came with a replacement key and i didnt want to misrepresent the key in my display. Hope this info helps you out!
-Richard Knip-

Thank you very much for your information.  I was unaware of one cuff being repaired.  I will go thru your instruction sheet soon and see if they are truly fully operational or not.  Thank you very much for your help

You're welcome! I hope they do work properly. The Mattatuck Company, made 3 different cuff designs. The Mattatuck, The Judd and The Maltby. Each one had a unique way of disengaging the locking mechanism and re-arming the locking mechanism. Allowing the cuffs to be carried in the officer's pocket and they wouldnt have to use a key to unlock the cuffs before applying them to the person who was being arrested. Unfortunately, with more moving parts inside of the cuffs, that made for more things to break or become damaged. Its not uncommon to have one cuff or the other break and have to be repaired. They way they did the "pins" to hold the cover on the cuff, makes it very difficult to make a repair and hide the fact the cuff was repaired.Let us know your findings on if your cuff does work properly, when you have time. Thanks again, for the inquiry!
-Richard Knip-

I was about to offer these Mattatuck cuffs on eBay but since this topic came up, I will ask $125 for these if anyone is interested and I will cover the shipping if in the US.

They work perfect and they do deadlock properly.
I just can't tell if the key is original.
It looks it but there are small differences that make me think it is a good copy