Ratner Safe Company was around long before Gerald Ratner (IIRC) dropped the biggest gaffe of his life. I don't believe he ever owned it.
A Ratner Safe Company was registered in Wolverhampton in 1968 so I believe the oriuginal one, which made the safe pictured, would have been liquidated by then.
From Grace's Guide:
Ratner Safe Co
of 51 Moorgate Street, London, EC
1889 Company established by
Daniel Rowlinson Ratcliff who had been a partner in the firm of
Thomas Milner and Son, safe makers, with his son
William Milner Ratcliff and
John M. Horner.
1896 Incorporated as a limited company.
1914 Manufacturers of safes, strong rooms and strong room doors, bankers' engineers. Specialities: Ratner safes, bent at all twelve corners out of the solid plate. This principle of construction was perfected in 1900. Patent obtained in 1909 for safe doors and rooms constructed to resist oxy-acetyline blowpipe. All thief resisting safes are fitted with drill-proof doors and interchangeable key lock invented by the company in 1901. Thousands of keys will lock this lock but it can be opened only by the one which locked it. Employees 200.
ALSO, from the internet:
RATNER SAFE COMPANY LIMITED is a Private limited company (Ltd.) company based in PO BOX 61 WEDNESFIELD ROAD, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom, which employs 9 people. The company started trading on 8 January 1968. The company registration number is 00925588, It’s main line of business activity is Non-trading company, and the company is listed as Inactive.
And there is currently a website for an Australian Ratner safe company. But my antivirus software blocks opening it - the website, not the safe! The part of the entry that is readable runs: Ratner Safes was established in London UK in 1784 and our Australian Division commenced manufacture in Australia in 1963, serving the Asia/Pacific Region. In 1972 the operation in Australi...
