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Posted 7 years ago
clangela
(1 item)
Wondering about this one. It does say C & F so I assume that it is Crouch and Fitzgerald but the newspaper lining is dated 1789 and this company didn't form until I think mid 1800's. Does anyone have something similar or have input on why it is lined in newspaper?
Thank you so much!
Carol from Connecticut
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Any comments are much appreciated!
Try to goggle; Craft and Faxon images .this Boston saddler
Is more along the time period of manufacturer's initials
That you may seek,just a thought.
Newspaper seems a common covering of the time period incidentally yours
is dated1781.It is an older American maker, Hard to find newspaper this old
Think about it,where was our country in 1781?
The letters are not the style of the 18th century. Only thing I see that happened on that date was, "Cornwallis occupies Yorktown, VA". Still might be a commemorative paper for something more local.
This style of box is referred to as a Document Box and over time, many of these boxes were re-purposed as small trunks or carryalls for light travel. The lockset is consistent with the time period and the box looks to be made of maple or some other lightly colored hardwood. Stencil decoration is consistent with the time period of the newspaper. The hinges may have been originally made of small strips of leather, nailed in place, and then replaced by small iron leaf hinges at a later date. Snipe hinges would not have been used because of the size of the box. Old newspaper was often used to line the interior of these boxes. The initials C & F are most likely not the initials of a manufacturer, but could be the initials of the business or persons who owned the document box. Another possibility is that the wood having the initials was removed from another box or trunk and used to complete a repair to the original box. Look carefully at the nails used to cobble the box together. I would expect to see small, hand-made, rose head iron nails, which would be consistent with the time period. All in all, and nice example of a period document box in nice condition.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/c1/cb/2e/c1cb2eb28cffaa7b801a58d6664a9de8.jpg
This is the image of one of the older American manufacturers labels that I previously referred to.The label only came to my mind because of the striking similarity of the C and F letters. The original posting of the trunk for this label has been deleted.Only the label image remains on Pinterest. The trunk was very similar to your pine "traveling" trunk only the original leather was present.Without a label in your trunk of course ,one could only speculate on the maker. I tend to consider most small document boxes to have a center top handle( an example would be the "Hicks" trunk in the link below).
https://books.google.com/books?id=vZtAAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA122&lpg=PA122&dq=sole+leather+trunk+manufacturers&source=bl&ots=nAdhdsR35C&sig=OLRZvqR50RWqPQFqIuTLNuGn6WM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=fjUkVZWNNIWmyQSnyoGYDA&ved=0CDUQ6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=sole%20leather%20trunk%20manufacturers&f=false
A wonderful link to the history of trunks and the reasons for their smaller size.
originally this trunk would have been covered in animal hair and hide similar to this small traveling trunk.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRIanib6p2cUvhPWSnI2-wL1ClBf-JBQ0nkD8RLQemIcUxxfvtF
Here is an example of a Document box.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/51/79/58/51795848ac14c6c587b43f139787667e.jpg
Thank you everyone for your comments and insights!!!