all original oversized late 1860's american antique industrial oversized heavy solid cast bronze pre-fire chicago bank building vault door handle designed and fabricated by or for the sargent and greenleaf company, rochester, ny. the massive vault door handle contains a unique knurled and banded hand grip. the decorative bottom edge of the handle consists of a single knurled ring and diminutive ball finial. the handle is fastened within a large ball-shaped knob with tapered shank and ball rounded finial along the top. the handle has been refinished and sealed with a clear coat finish. sargent and greenleaf began as the james sargent lock company, founded in 1857 by james sargent. in 1865, sargent partnered with halbert greenleaf to establish the sargent & greenleaf company, which began operations in rochester, ny. in 1869 the company got the first of many government contracts to design and produce safe locks for the u.s. treasury department. during world war i and ii they produced a wide variety of builder's hardware as well as many lock and safe designs. the company is considered one of the oldest and well-known high-security lock manufacturers in the united states. in 2005 sargent & greenleaf was acquired by the stanley works, an international tool and hardware manufacturer. notable innovations by this company include, but not limited to the sargent's magnetic bank lock (1857), said to be the first successful key changeable combination lock. in 1873, sargent created the first time lock, using parts from "eight-day" clocks. in 1880, sargent connected one of his combination locks to a delay timer, thus creating the first time-delay combination lock.