For sale is a BRASS MASTERLOCK ADVERTISING MEDALLION from the Master Lock Company, Milwaukee. The round metal sign features the company logo: a lion head biting a plaque with the word “MASTER”. The text around the border of the sign reads: “STRENGTH – SECURITY – PADLOCK”. The round sign measures 5 1/2 inches diameter and would have been mounted on a wooden board used to display various types of locks for sale. This sign dates to the 1950s because the Master Lock logo featured a full lion logo during the 1930s and 1940s. During the 1950s, the company logo was changed to the lion head. A rare advertising collectible which is perfect to accent your collection of antique locks.
A century ago, Harry Soref had an idea for a new product: a tough but affordable lock. Prior to 1921, locks were available in two styles: expensive but nearly impossible to break and cheap but easy to smash open. Top-of-the-line padlocks sold for more than $100 in today’s money; Soref’s invention cost about a tenth of that price. The Russian, Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrant approached family and friends in Milwaukee and asked if they would be willing to invest in his new business venture. “Lox?” they asked. “Why would we want to put money in new lox? What’s wrong with the old lox?”
In 1921, Soref and two friends founded the Master Lock Company in Milwaukee. In 1924, the company was granted the first patent on such a laminated lock design. According to popular company lore, Soref advised Harry Houdini where to hide a key to a padlock on his body. In 1974, Master Lock ran a Super Bowl ad demonstrating one of their locks withstanding a shot by a sharpshooter, thereby proving its durability and thus their slogan “Tough Under Fire”. Master Lock continued running similar ads during future Super Bowls, spending almost their entire annual marketing budget on the single commercial.
