super strong box details welcome

[stephane]

hi gentlemen. read with interest all your post on vault doors, superstrong safes and beautiful locks so just hope i am not on the wrong way with my last found on a local brocante with this tiny (can not contain more than a cigarettes box) and strong for the size (3mm tickness) this charmante petite box. no idea and no marking except the "13" on the keys. the threading screws is inch so english or US one for sure.
this is a first lock when "clap" the lid and possibility to solid lock by one turn on the left. endless turn on the right (to lock off the clap and the hard lock)
i am sceptic on the original use of it because not understanding on something so little and strong, this is a no sense......and all the charm.
13cms length x 9cms large x 6cms high

[chubbbramah]

Curious. I have a larger one like this: 30x20cm, also with a flat lever key. And another, same size, all black, with a 3lever pin key. They both have the same action: latching when closed, and deadlocking with a turn of the key. Neither has a coin tray insert, nor supports for a tray.
The boxes are strongly made of pressed steel, unlike the common soldered tinplate cashboxes.
I cannot measure the thread guages but they measure more neatly in cm rather than inches. The flat steel key suggests America, whilst the elaborate paint job suggest late 19C. Plain black I guessed more likely 1920s. The latching-deadlock function is not, afaik, typically British.
So where from, and when? My guess is European, possibly German, and being pressed, maybe 1920s? But would Germany have been making anything like this in the 1920s?
As a matter of curiosity, Hitler's dispatch box is also strong, nicely painted, but square-cornered, with a pin key lock.
https://www.alamy.com/stock-image-de...165991873.html This is a large file, so this is a link 60 MB (1.8 MB Compressed download)
There is a 3D animation here https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/hitl...7e091379b16e73
Despatch box used by Adolf Hitler. Removed from the Bunker beneath the Chancellery in Berlin by Lieutenant Colonel I F Anderson OBE MC, Seaforth Highlanders in May 1945. Part of the Highlander’s Museum collection (Queen’s Own Highlanders Collection).
The Highlanders’ Museum, Fort George, Ardersier, Inverness, IV2 7TD.

I look forward to any information on these cash? boxes any can provide.

[stephane]

Thanks Chubbbramah for details. another point not visible on my photos : there is a light black "marble" effect in the paint if can help on the period of product. i am going to remove the lock caps to find something mark inside with chance.

[stephane]

Hi, i removed the lock and unfortunately nothing on manufacturers or country origin.