Posted by Stan Willis on July 11, 2001 at 10:18:10:
In Reply to: Guardian Handcuffs posted by Atame on July 10, 2001 at 19:21:52:
I will tell you what I think I know about the Guardian cuffs. They were made in Merchantville, NJ in the late 1960's and thru the 1970's. The 1977 price list shows retail at $ 17.95. The cuffs are mrked "Guardian", and Guardian also made the same cuff and marked it for "Bucheimer", the leather company. They also made the Sirchie cuff and it was also marketed to the military. I have a Guardian cuff in a Guardian box, and a Bucheimer cuff in a Bucheimer box, and a Sirchie in both a Sirchie box and a military spec box. They did not make a Leg Iron, and only one Belly chain is known to exist. All the cuffs were plated, except for a very early model that was unplated and was marked differently. All the cuffs and boxes have the Guardian name somewhere on them. They are very high quality. They were considered very rare (The Guardian marked cuffs) until recently, when a lady in NJ started putting them on eBay. She has what was sitting at the factory until the owner died within the last year and the warehouse contents was sold. These are returns or are new, but the grease in them dried up and they needed to be soaked in solvent. Value is whatever you can get one for until she runs out of them, then the price will go up again. I currently have one on eBay, so I won't discuss price. Hope this is helpful.
Stan
: Hello Fellow-Collectors!
: Lately I saw some auctions of "Guardian" Handcuffs at eBay (and won one :-) ). Could someone please give me some information about these restraints (age, value etc.)? Thank you!
: Regards from blue-white Bavaria,
: Atame