Posted 9 years ago
kygirlinnola
(3 items)
Another gem from my mom's house in Kentucky. I know it has been in the family a long time (possibly my great-great grandmother's). Has anybody seen one with a similar inside? I'm thinking late 1800s but could it be earlier? Any info would be great! Thanks!
Hi. I have one on this site, too. Is there a date or manufacturer name on the hardware? I was told to start there. Mine is very similar and the patent date is April 15, 1879.
JoyousJunker, I have one similar to this.. I looked all over it and couldn't find any dates, names, anything- all I found were a couple of numbers exposed on the front padlock, but not all of them were visible. Any suggestions on where this information might be located?
Kdean4, when I cleaned it, I found the dates on each different piece of metal used on the trunk, including the wheels. The only name that I found was on the wheels (and I can't remember it right now). I was told that mine was 1890's. The latest date is the wheels at 1885. That's all I know. I wish I knew more.
The dates on the wheels and other hardware are all patent dates from the makers of the hardware itself and most normally not the makers of the trunk... so the trunks cannot be any older than the patent dates -- however the hardware was available long after the patent dates -- I would place this trunk around the mid to late 1890's -- it is a standard dome top trunk made by many makers at the time. There were many lithographs available to choose from depicting various pastoral scenes or young ladies -- you have a nice example on the interior lid of yours. If you can identify a clear patent date you can look it up and discover who made the hardware -- without a makers label however you will be hard pressed to discover what company actually made the trunk. Hope this helps....