Posted 2 years ago
HGWCBORD
(1 item)
Steamer Trunk that has been in my family.
Outside condition is a little rough, but the internal paper and pictures is in great condition.
Trying to figure out if it's 1870s era.
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A Nice Barrel stave trunk by a fine maker, Some History:
D.C. Lang (born in Albany Ny. July 8 1852) purchased Fond du lac trunk factory Wisconsin. In 1874 managed the company alone for a year. In 1875 his older brother John H. Lang (born in Albany Ny. June 16 1850) became his partner thus forming the name on the label of your trunk .
D.C.& J.H. Lang Fond Du Lac trunk factory.
Within 3 years they had eighteen men working and sales in adjoining states of $25,000 per annum.There is other history with beating their wood slat suppliers that had sued them over $150.00 etc. I actually have an image of your exact trunk on an older different(Less popular) Fond du lac label.Your label is the one I have seen the most . I am unable to post it here on CW format. If you E-mail me, I'll send you pictures of 1874 advertising, the storefront & the label that I have.
So the trunk fasteners (the latches) with the star on them were made by the Star lock company. Hillebrand & Wolf of Phila. The patent stamped on the metal could be either models Mar. 1868 or 1872 or 74 even potentially another one.They had multiple patents. The pictures posted, are small and hard to zoom in on the dated numbers on the lower portion of the latches.
Take a peak at those numbers. A good rule is that when you see a patent date the item can be no older than the most recent patent date. It also can't be older than the history of the Maker of the trunk. I think late 1870's early 1880's There are other patents dates for hardware on this trunk that may apply: I posted below. Always keep in mind, Some hardware was used for 10 or more years after patents were awarded or renewed.
corner patent image below
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pages/USD11524-0.png
possible slat clamp
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pages/USD4200-0.png
Lock latch
http://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pages/US163230-0.png
Lock
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/04/c9/c7/c5258117615e84/US190035-drawings-page-1.png
Hope this helps a bit.Thanks for the post.