Posted 11 years ago
Nelson_324
(1 item)
34.5wide 24highest part of barrel top 18deep. I know nothing of this type, cleaned out my parents garage and they found it when they cleaned out my grandpa's garage. Was going to restore as a treasure chest fir my boys pirate themed room but as a rule of thumb I want to do research first before I destroy value. Any help is appreciated couldn't find any marking beside hand written date and location, thinking might be the owner. Reads "Fred J. Schindler 729 Hendove Ave Detroit Mich"
This looks a lot like mine. Even the bottom! So grateful you posted that bottom view because I feared someone had altered mine. There are also three strips of wood underneath mine, but they have casters on them as well. I was able to gind out that my trunk style is Saratoga. Good luck to you.
You have a really nice late 1880's- 1890's hump back trunk. It has beautiful cast iron corner pieces. Is is unfortunate that it has suffered so much moisture damage -- but there are ways to bring it back to life. Particularly if the wood staves have a lot of discoloration to them a darker stain will help mitigate the effect. Your slat clamps are rusted out completely and you may require a steel brush on a drill to grind them back to shape -- they may be too far gone and require painting. The cast iron corner and end pieces I would steel wool them back to life and add gun oil -- but they may be too pitted and require painting.. The body looks too rusted to do anything but sand off the rust and repaint with a nice flat or semi-gloss metal paint. I have a Vanderman strongbox on my site that I spray painted and it came out great. Aimathema mentioned Saratoga type trunk. This name of trunk had a bit of a wide usage at its time. It often referred to a makers top of the line trunk as well as a full sized well compartmented dome or hump back trunk. Judging by the hardware on yours I would consider it would be of this type -- I have to recheck my facts on this however as there seems to be some debate on the subject. Great trunk -- thanks for the post. PS. If placed in a child's room the heavy lid will break fingers and dangerous for getting locked in. I added small little side locks to all my trunks when the kids were small. I think you may be able to find small hydraulic lid openers for safety.
Trunkman brings up a very important safety point. I was so excited over the bottom view photo that I neglected to actually read the post. I have a 9 year old, whom I have forbidden to play near the trunk, for fear he could become locked in it.
Since I do not have the key, I have masking tape over the lock preventing it from accidentally locking closed.
I've since filled it with my own treasures... depression glass pieces.
I wish you lots of luck in refinishing it, I have yet to tackle mine.
That lithograph and border look to be in very good condition. This is great. If you plan on leaving this as is I recommend (after a mild wash) to seal and preserve it with clear shelac. This is a natural preservative and will helo to mitigate any musty smell.
Nice old trunk. The inside of the lid looks great. I agree with trunkingforfun that it would be nice if you could leave it and preserve with shellac. Good luck!