Posted 13 years ago
Gilnh2o
(1 item)
Lots of metal and wood, beautiful detail.
Lock has star that rotates to side for key.
All sides and inside clean and look to be original.
Would like to have any information on this.
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Anybody have any ideas on the history of this chest??? Style, design, age????
Funny, I just researched this kind of chest for my daughter. She found it on the side of the road in NH. It is Victorian, 1880's, hers' appears to have hammered metal sheets on the top with two locks. There was a guy selling one on Ebay. Don't know if the listing is still there. Good luck.
1880-1900 dome top. From the look of the wood on the top, it may have had an embossed tin covering (see the darker spots). Check to see if there are other nail holes, etc. Body should be pine and the slats oak. The detail on the slat covers and the lock make the trunk somewhat unique. The style was fairly common, but the details were what set the maufacturers and quality apart. Nice find.
The 1900 Sears catalog has illustrations , descriptions and prices
for over 40 different trunks.The original catalog is hard to come by but some good reprints and DVD's available-
Your trunk is a Barrel top, or Barrel stave trunk. A barrel top is where the center is higher than the ends. It is also the way the top is constructed, like a barrel with several staves, or slats steam bent, and tightly fitted to form the top. The direction of the Hardwood slats on top have nothing to do with the term Barrel top. Yours is a Barrel stave with slats running lengthwise. The other style would be a Barrel stave with the slats running front to back. The term Hump-back, or Camel-back are made up terms, and were NEVER used by the makers or sellers of trunks. Your trunk was covered with leather (look carefully under the slats, or metal) and was made around the late 1870s. the latches were patented in 1873 by J Arnold. the lock was made by Star lock works, and the cast iron slat clamps (corner pieces) were patented by Charles Taylor and were used on a great number of trunks from 1877 through the late 1880s. E-mail me if you have any more questions, or visit my site at HMSantiquetrunks.com
Thank you,
Jim