Lock Show Holds Keys to Past

Mark Cannon hunted for the latest in handcuffs, leg shackles and straitjackets.

As a magician and escape artist, Cannon wanted to examine the oldest, heaviest and sharpest of the links, locks and iron contraptions Saturday at the 26th annual Antique Lock Show, which continues today at the Embassy Suites in Arcadia.

“Here we go,” Cannon said, excited as he sifted through a display that included iron dungeon cuffs from the 1700s and a spiked chain-gang ankle restraint.

“Now these would be a challenge to get out of.”

Hundreds of lock lovers and key aficionados scoured the exhibits, hoping to buy, sell or just admire thousands of iron, brass and bronze collectibles, ranging in price from $3 to $10,000.

Besides human restraints, about 50 vendors boasted locks as small as a dime and as big as a fist. Some predated Christ; others were merely a century old. One European collector even had a sheet-iron chastity belt.

There were tin locks, railroad locks, bike locks, smokehouse locks, Scandinavian locks, padlocks, miniature locks, cast iron locks, pancake locks, logo locks, combination locks, trick locks. And on and on.

“It’s amazing in America how many things lock,” said Doug Huse of Pasadena, president of the 200-member West Coast Lock Collectors Assn., which sponsored the event. “Therein lies the essence of the collection. And there’s no ending to it.”

The increase in Internet auction sites has lured lock collectors.

Locks were once regarded with the same esteem as jewelry, collectors said. They were worn as rings and necklaces and revealed how much property one owned.

A.J. and Vivian Hoffman said they got a bargain when they paid $10,000 for a 17th century French iron lock with decorative scrolls, created by a man earning his title as master locksmith.

“This is the type of item you see in a museum,” A.J. Hoffman said, cradling the lock like a baby. “It’s priceless,” he said.

“Isn’t that beautiful?” asked Mike Hart, a La Verne blacksmith who has made gates using antique locks for the state’s missions. “It’s like a puzzle in itself.”

Although the French lock was not for sale, the Hoffman’s large display contained other sought-after items, such as a Greek iron lock set from 200 B.C. worth $60 to $100.

Perhaps the most fascinating attraction was a European chastity belt from the 1800s. Mothers, fathers and husbands once ordered young women to wear things like the sharp-toothed, iron device at which passersby gawked and grimaced. Knights forced their wives to wear such things while they were away, Huse said. The only person who had the belt’s key was the locksmith.

“A lot of locksmiths lost their lives when the knights returned,” he said.