Diversion Safe

Back in the 1720s a new trend was emerging around America with the wealthy. In the 1700s bank safety deposit boxes were unheard of, this left colonists having to find other solutions to trying to protect their valuables. Italian craftsmen started to make unique desks that contained secret compartments. Each desk would have a different way of getting to these hidden spots. Some desks you’d have to press a certain spot to release a wooden spring, or perhaps take out a series of drawers instead. It is a dream of many modern antique desk owners of finding these hidden compartments and hoping that something valueable may still be left behind. This may sound a bit farfetched but in 1794 the fifth president of the United States of America, James Monroe bought a desk from Louis XVI that contained one of these hidden compartments.

In 1906 the desk that had been passed down generation after generation was damaged by a child and when it was taken to be repaired the secret compartment was found. Inside was priceless documents still intact. Argueably the most important documents inside that desk were letters between James Monroe and Thomas Jefferson, which was very rare because Thomas Jefferson burned most of his letters while he was president. It is still very possible that many antique desks out there still hold their long lasting secrets of secret compartments, some collectors only have discovered them after years upon years of owning them.

In more modern times such as during the Holocaust more and more people started to own furniture again with places that let them hide their valueables within. Near everything can be crafted or altered to allow for this. Now it’s fairly common to find higher end furniture with false drawers to help conceal valuables such as jewelry. This has also became somewhat of a problem with people using these hiding spots to hide their contraband and drugs from police. It’s not rare for US customs to find vehicles holding vast amounts of contraband within such compartments.

All in all the American way of trying to keep your wealth and valuables to yourself and out of harms way will always live on. Maybe someday you’ll be lucky enough to tap a random spot on an old desk to hear a click and an old parchment fall into your lap.