Safe Key

40 Objects for 40 Years

A simple blue and white graphic image of an old-fashioned key.

Safe Key (c. 1850) – E. Cotterill & Co.

This ornate key is for our antique office safe.

We love our characterful and beautifully made safe, except for when it needs moving, it is VERY heavy!

It’s lovely to have an object, that we use every day, which has been made with such care and connects us the history of industrial making in Birmingham and the Jewellery Quarter.

Edwin Cotterill and Co was established in Birmingham in 1840 and made locks, safes and chests.

Nominated by:

Emma Larkinson, Operations and Development Manager
Lisa Falaschi, Marketing Manager.

To celebrate Craftspace’s 40th Anniversary, we commissioned the artist Stewart Francis Easton to create an artwork which would explore the story of Craftspace through 40 objects. Stewart created a series of four beautiful graphic quilts.

A photograph of an old-fashioned key against a white background.
A photograph of an old fashioned key in the lock of an old-fashioned safe.


Where Next

A simple pink and white graphic image of a porcelain artwork by Lucy Baxendale, of a creature smiling, covered in leaves.

Movement (2025) by Lucy Baxendale

40 Objects: Movement (2025) by Lucy Baxendale

A simple green and white graphic image of of an artwork by Melanie Tomlinson of a blackbird.

Blackbird (2025) by Melanie Tomlinson

40 Objects: Blackbird (2025) by Melanie Tomlinson

A simple blue and white graphic image of four skeins of yarn suspended from a horizontal pole. A thread from each has been unspun, spelling out '4600'.

4600 Gifts Workshop Setup

40 Objects: 4600 Gifts Workshop Setup

A simple green and white graphic image of a green toolbox.

Exhibition Toolbag

40 Objects: Installation Toolbag



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