Was he a safemaker?

[Warren63]

Hi all, I've been researching some brass plaques I have and wondered if anyone else has came across anything that would suggest John Greig and sons of edinburgh was a safemaker. I have found out he was an iron founder and machine maker/engineer but has anyone came across anything that would suggest he was a safemaker also. I can't remember where but I am sure I have seen this plate in someone elses collection. I was going to put these plaques on eBay but if anyone could confirm he was a safemaker I would keep it for my collection. Thanks for any responses.

[Syd Waterman]

Hi.
Greig’s made presses for printers, bookbinders and lithographers, and their output included envelope making machines, copying presses and numerical printing machines.
Not a safe in sight!
Regards.
Patent.

[chubbbramah]

Worth remembering that many Victorian/Edwardian machinery makers put nameplates on their machines, commonly cast brass but also castiron and sometimes, pressed brass sheet. Not all say the type or machinery, so beware of unscrupulous/ignorant sellers on eBay trying to represent such plates as safeplates.
The op is to be applauded for checking first.

[Huw Eastwood]

yes I think you have one of their machine plates there Mark. As chubbbramah says it was the norm for machinery manufacturers to fit an impressive maker's plate, in addition to separate, more basic ID plates stamped with specification, model and serial numbers etc.

That's not to say Greig's wouldn't have been capable of making safes though- most of the low-end safes of that era only involved crude fabrication and very low-level engineering, far more basic than the precision engineering involved in their heavy machinery. Although the machines of the day typically used a lot of big castings for construction, many did use a lot of heavy plate and fabrication work for housing gearing and drives etc, so I'm sure they would have been more than capable of doing so.

I've never encountered or heard of one though, and like patent says there never seems to be any mention of safes, so I'd think it's a pretty safe bet that they stuck with their range of machines and that your plate is off one of those. It's a very nice plate though- might be worth considering a swap at some time if you ever wanted to let it go, perhaps for some brass climax key caps...

[Warren63]

Sounds like a good idea Huw.It's just just sitting about waiting to go on eBay. I would much rather it go to a collector for a swap as opposed to a dealer. I'll message you later for the details. Nice one.