Ratcliff and Horner safe

[Mickybelfast]

Hi folks, new to site and looking for some info!
Just moved into a new house and found a ratcliff
& Horner patented fire resisting safe in the basement.
It looks fairly old and have found a key that locks it.
Can't see much on the Internet about them and builder
has offered to take it away. Is it worth hanging on to?
I like it and would like to know more about it

[Raymond]

Great lucky find. Don't know anything about this specific safe, but why would you want to give it away at all? You can at least store all your baby pictures and stamp collection in it. Go talk to a local locksmith/safeman about changing the key in case the previous owner still has one. At least get a duplicate key made. See if you can give us all a picture so we know what you have. We are a curious lot.

[mh]

Does the key / lock look like one of these?
http://www.historyoflocks.com/rat001.html

Cheers
mh

P.S. please be aware that safes and their locks is a restricted topic here, so discussion about how to open one without key / combination wouldn't be allowed in the open parts of this forum.

[MacGyver101]

It wouldn't be economical to ship the safe overseas -- but if you're not interested in keeping the safe, at minimum I'd certainly be willing to make you an offer on the lock and key. (And there's often value in the nameplate on the safe.)