🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Help with a couple of old locks please.

[Greastart]

Hey TNetters,

I need help with a couple of locks.
My buddy was given these when he was 6 years old. He said the old guy that had them had a bunch so he gave these to Stanley after he expressed how much he liked them.
Stanley is about 60 so he's had them for about 54 years.
Stanley asked if I could find anything out about them for him.

 

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[villagenut]

Nice ones

 

[ArfieBoy]

I know nothing! Sorry, I can't help.

 

[Red-Coat]

Good old padlocks. They’re from the Mallory Wheeler Company (M.W. Co.) and its forerunner Davenport, Mallory & Company (D.M. & Co.) They’re often generically referred to as “smokehouse padlocks” or “railroad padlocks” but of course had a multitude of uses.

The company history is complicated, with numerous name changes arising from acquisition, inheritance, retirement and deaths of its various business partners through the years. Broadly this, in summary:

1834 (some sources say 1836): Asahel Pierpont and John G. Hotchkiss founded a lock-making company as Pierpont & Hotchkiss in New Haven CT.
1840: Burton Mallory was employed as book-keeper for Pierpont & Hotchkiss.
1843: Burton Mallory became a partner in the business, renamed to Pierpont, Mallory & Co. Their goods were sold via an arrangement with the New York company of Davenport & Quincy.
1852: Asahel Pierpont retired from the business and his interests were bought out by Burton Mallory and John A. Davenport (the latter of the Davenport & Quincy company who had previously been their agent).
1852-1861: The company was successively named: Davenport & Mallory; Davenport, Mallory & Lockwood; and then Davenport & Mallory (again).
1861: The company became Davenport, Mallory & Co.
1868: John A. Davenport’s nephew, John Davenport Wheeler bought a one-tenth interest in the business from his uncle’s estate and the company name changed to Mallory, Wheeler & Co.

So I would think the D.M. & Co. lock dates between 1861-1868 and the M.W. Co. lock a little later (post-Civil War).

 

[Greastart]

Good old padlocks. They’re from the Mallory Wheeler Company (M.W. Co.) and its forerunner Davenport, Mallory & Company (D.M. & Co.) They’re often generically referred to as “smokehouse padlocks” or “railroad padlocks” but of course had a multitude of uses.

The company history is complicated, with numerous name changes arising from acquisition, inheritance, retirement and deaths of its various business partners through the years. Broadly this, in summary:

1834 (some sources say 1836): Asahel Pierpont and John G. Hotchkiss founded a lock-making company as Pierpoint & Hotchkiss in New Haven CT.
1840: Burton Mallory was employed as book-keeper for Pierpont & Hotchkiss.
1843: Burton Mallory became a partner in the business, renamed to Pierpont, Mallory & Co. Their goods were sold via an arrangement with the New York company of Davenport & Quincy.
1852: Asahel Pierpont retired from the business and his interests were bought out by Burton Mallory and John A. Davenport (the latter of the Davenport & Quincy company who had previously been their agent).
1852-1861: The company was successively named: Davenport & Mallory; Davenport, Mallory & Lockwood; and then Davenport & Mallory (again).
1861: The company became Davenport, Mallory & Co.
1868: John A. Davenport’s nephew, John Davenport Wheeler bought a one-tenth interest in the business from his uncle’s estate and the company name changed to Mallory, Wheeler & Co.

So I would think the D.M. & Co. lock dates between 1861-1868 and the M.W. Co. lock a little later (post-Civil War).

Thanks Red Coat. I told my buddy that someone here would be able to offer some great info in a very short amount of time.
This forum is a great little corner of the internet.