Posted 11 years ago
sams2100
(5 items)
Picked up this trunk today, so its officially mine now. After inspecting it a bit more, it appears to be canvas and has been painted at some point. The painting must have occurred after the leather straps rotted away.
I also believe the lock is not original. It appears to be much newer than the trunk, but also appears to overlap the original lift handle that was near the lock position. Since the lock is broken, it would appear that I can put a better one on it. I would love to know what type the original lock was.
I thought the special hinges on the back were a nice touch, the lid doesn't need a support bar on the inside because these hinges have support bars built into them that extend when opened.
Overall I think I like the hardware on this trunk the most, it's beautiful. The size of the trunk is also very impressive: 39.5" long, 24" deep, 27.5" tall... huge!
Anyone have an idea of date on this one?
Lovely purchase! I would date this trunk around late 1880's to early to mid 1890's. Those specialized hinges must have been patented as they are unique. A quality trunk for it's day and probably one of the earlier ones to use vulcanized fiber for trim.
I'm considering removing the broken lock that is there and replacing it with something more accurate for the trunk's age. Have any clue what type of lock would naturally be with this trunk?
Hi, nice trunk and I wanted to share a little information. I've collected and studied or researched trunks for about 40 years. The special stay hinges on this trunk were patented by Frank Mix in 1887. He worked for Eagle Lock company and then Corbin lock company and had quite a few trunk lock patents. I have researched trunk and parts patents for years now and have a couple hundred of them on file. I also have a collection of old trunk catalogs I've found over the years and this style was actually made by quite a few companies from about 1890 to the early 1920's. They were often called slatless trunks, obviously because it was a design without the outer wooden slats that most trunks had. They usually used basswood for these trunks and used canvas covering on most of them, but some were completely covered with the hard fiber covering, usually called vulcanized fiber but also called other names such as Katavert and leatheroid. I've worked on a number of these over the years and the fiber binding usually cleans up very well and can be dyed and polished to look like real leather, which is what it was intended to look like. I have one catalog from a Nashville TN trunk company from 1911 that shows a trunk nearly identical to this one. They were more light weight than many other styles because of the basswood and no outer slats, therefore less metal hardware overall. Each company gave them their own model names. I could probably help you with the lock issue but would need to see better pictures first. Several types of locks were used on these and you can normally tell which one was original by the original holes in the trunk. I sell some old original style trunk parts and locks and I personally hate to see the new, cheap, brass plated locks used on nice antique trunks. These trunks can be very beautiful with the canvas removed and the wood refinished, leather straps replaced, etc. It really doesn't hurt the value and if done well it increases the value. I try to help people with information on their old trunks but it gets difficult sometimes as I get many emails each day asking for history, etc. But you are welcome to contact me directly with the contact information on my website, which is ThisOldTrunk.com. I hope that helps some.
Marvin
Good to hear from TrunkerMarvin, such detailed history!