Posted 10 years ago
hmsantique…
(52 items)
JonB. Your trunk was patented on Sept. 6 1898 by B.T.. Smith & A.E. Baker. I have seen a few of these and they are all pretty faithful to the patent. The hardware differs on them, and that is not an unusual thing with trunk makers. Sometime I truly believe that the worker putting on the hardware choose whatever was closest, or what they had on hand. Here are some pictures of one i found a few years back along with the patent. This trunk had the patent date stamped inside it, so it made locating the patent a little easier. Your trunk is in very nice original condition and it appears to be complete. Have fun with it.
Jim
hmsantiquetrunks.com
Jim, as always, thank you for sharing your knowledge with me. Before posting my trunk I spent a lot of time looking online for any information to include patents. It seems as if it will take a while to advance my trunk internet abilities. The trunk you posted has beautiful hardware, definitely more ornate. I’m starting to think that buying a trunk in the old days was like buying a car now.
Oh, you want trunk X, great choice Sir, but it would look so much better if you added this year’s hardware for only 40 cents more. By the way we can upgrade the lock for you, just an additional 50 cents, Etc.
Me wants....
Interesting