Safe cash box

The safe cash box shown here is an interesting example of 19th-century craft and the method in which goods of special value and goods particularly susceptible to destruction were protected in those days. It is a rectangular metal box with a lid attached with hinges. The box was locked with a code regulated through the proper arrangement of three steel knobs to which rings with Latin letters stamped in majuscule were fastened. The cash box is covered with wood grain reproduced by the painting technique that creates the illusion of a material different from the one actually used. On the underside of the lid, we can see the label of the producer – the Wertheim company. It was an Austrian enterprise established in the middle of the 19th century, whose founder Franz Freiherr von Wertheim (1814–1883) specialised in the production of fireproof strongboxes under the name Wertheim – Kassen. His factory operated successfully in Austria, producing improved versions of fireproof cash boxes on the basis of a patent of the Sommermayer company acquired by Wertheim. (). The company has survived till today, adapting its production profile to the spirit of the times. Today, under the name Wertheim, it continues to produce devices concerning the mechanical protection of property. In the Wilanów collection, there is another similar object (inventory number Wil.6228). It is a safe cash box made in an equally famous factory with a similar production profile that operated in Great Britain – Milner & Son.