Quote Originally Posted by chubbbramah View Post
Surely the earliest security was 'strongboxes'? The 'receptacle safe from fire and theft' was due to Marr's fireproof lining patent of 1834, I submit. I date the safe from that.
Logically, 'plate safes', which have no fire protection, ought to be called 'secures', but that battle was lost long ago.
i agree with you that nothing used to be properly secure but if you think in more general terms, about strongboxes that were more than merely wooden boxes, the hobnails were a progression from wooden boxes in that they were covered in metal and came before cast strongboxes and other all metal strongboxes.
How old were the oldest hobnails or other variants?