Posted 8 years ago
JayMar
(2 items)
My wife and I recently picked up this chest at a local yard sale. We have always wanted one. We were trying to figure out the make of the chest and did a lot of research online but we are new to this type of furniture and not sure how to identify it. Only identifying marks we can find are patent dates on hinges on the back of trunk. We know the double locking latches are missing, key hole and rest of lock are there. Two wheels off bottom and the handles. Has three patent dates: Pat'd Jan. 1, 1884
7 July 29, 1884
77 Jan. 6, 1885
Any help would be appreciated, thanks Jason and Mara.
Wow! beautiful trunk, probably from around 1885 to 1895, what would be called a Saratoga or brides trunk. Very ornate, very high end trunk, more pictures please. What is the lighter colored covering on the trunk tin or leather can't tell? just saw a double latch on ebay , every thing can be replaced, what's the in side look like? once again very nice trunk, good find.
Will go take more pics, it is metal on trunk not leather, inside still has the paper lining. From looks of it on inside it didn't have the shelf with this model doesn't look like there is a lip to hold one up.
But all paper intact on inside and clean...just a Lil dusty...only real thing wrong with it is missing double latch, handles and two wheels off bottom.
From the looks of it metal was a gold color at one time can see gold flakes near where wood and metal meet. We really like it and think it looks in great shape for the age.
Beautiful trunk indeed -- may be a Romadka brothers trunk -- you can look up the patent dates to see who made the hardware -- if it is by Romadka they did not source out their hardware so they would have made it. May also be a Sessions trunk -- well the patent info should help narrow down the possibilities or eliminate some makers.
I'm positive this trunk had a tray, somebody removed it, lost it or something, the tray rails may have been removed, hard to say but I'm sure it had a tray of some kind. probably what they crystallized tin, it came in many colors, gold, silver, green ,blue and others seems like gold was most common. Like I said latches, handles and wheels can be replaced, I make all my own leather parts, check on line for the hardware stuff. If you like the way it looks start slow with a good cleaning with a soft brush and murphys oil soap and see what you got.
Where exactly do you look up patent info for stuff like this I'm new at this lol. Thanks guys for the tips and help.
And where on ebay did you happen to see the double latch? What was the wording on the search? Again thanks a lot for the help and info.
It was right on the CW here, when your looking at trunks on CW look at the top of the page where it says e-bay auctions click on that, theirs a picture if you look close theirs a double latch in the pile of hardware, also Jim at HMS antiques is big on patent dates, he has a web site, HMS antiques if he doesn't know it nobody does
Sweet thanks...This has been kinda fun looking for all this...and a Lil annoying haha...more pictures will be coming soon as well
Note only about 4 hours left on that auction.
If this is your first trunk you picked a good one, but I bet it won't be your last, like so many others I have fallen in love with trunks, the quality and craftsmanship put into a trunk a hundred and twenty or more years ago by a man if he was lucky making .50 cents to a 1.00 a day for a trunk that cost any where from 1.75 to 5.00 or so, and then I wonder where they've been and who owned them, the travels it has made to end up in my possession.
Wow! never seen hinges like this before, but that's the way of trunks always something different all the time. It appears to me that someone at sometime my have tried to redo the inside not sure, definitely a crystallized tin trunk, it was a chemical process on the tin that appeared somewhat like ice crystals, the only problem was it didn't hold up well, you can get on line,type in antique trunks and see some examples of this type of trunk, very hard to get one in really good condition the finish that is. P.S. love it, wished I had it.
We had seen some of that process and read about it while we were doing research. Interesting way of adding color to the trunks. We are very pleased with the find, and we didn't spend much at all for it.
And thanks again guys for all the help figuring things out on this chest it has been a interesting learning process.
The patent dates are for the" Brace Hinge" only I believe ,not the trunk.
Images are not always available for all patents. Here are two similar hinge brace
patents that are very close. Hope this helps. wonderful first trunk.thanks for the post.
http://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pages/US295817-0.png
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pages/US316399-0.png
If anyone knows a good place to find hardware for the double latch lock on this trunk please let me know. Been searching all over the net and haven't found anything yet.