Posted 12 years ago
fearghais
(3 items)
Found this battered old trunk and got it really inexpensively. Just thought it was a neat find - even if it is in pretty bad shape.
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Hi fearghais! What a great old trunk! Can you tell us how big it is? I have one that's pretty small but is made much like yours. You're right, it IS a neat find! I can't believe trunkman hasn't found stopped by yet to check it out. Thanks for sharing your find! :-)
Hello ChinaBlue :)
I am sure TrunkMan will come along eventually - I hope so, anyway :)
The measurements are 15 x 28. Thanks!
Awesome old beater trunk fearghais. Probably circa 1910. It has great bones -- you can see the pine peaking through the canvas already. Are those wood handles? Probably a later addition by someone who figured out the leather ones never last. Are you looking to just clean it up or make a project out of it? It has tons of character either way.
Hi Trunkman! "Beater Trunk" you say? Cool - will have to research that name - I am learning a little along the way here. Yes, those are wood handles - when I went to pick it up when I got it - they were stiff and I thought, "Those better be wood, cause they ain't movin'...". Well, I'd love to make a project out of it...remove the paper (inside and out) like I did with the last one and tung oil it down. The only thing is the tin and rust...I'm assuming i just steel wool everything as well as i can and add gun oil for the finish? Thanks!
Oh...also the back of it - someone has taken 3-4 strips (small ones) of tin and hammered them to bend at the junction of the dome part to the side of the dome to "patch" the area - it must have been loose. They nailed these in place with small nails. There's also a small area on the very top of the dome when they slid one of those tin strips under one of the tops slats to do something (not sure what was being accomplished there). I'm wondering if i should remove all the tin because of this - I'd hate to do that, but just wondered. There's an area of tin on the top....about 4" in diameter where the tin is torn out.
I typed "beater trunk" into google - nothing shows...did you mean to type "Beat up" trunk? LOL. That would accurately describe this trunk, bless it's heart.
Ah ha! The trunkman cometh! I'll have to post some pics of the one I have that is similar for him to check out. I'll be anxious to see what you do with this one, fearghais. I love the wooden handles. :-)
"Beater Trunk" is just my own expression of a good old trunk that has had a lot of life. The tin does pose a bit of a dilemma. More than likely on the top there is rip or whole in the tin where the patch is. I have not been brave enough to take the tin off of a trunk. If it is one piece along the lop then I am not sure how to get it off without having to remove the slats, which is a big job. I personally would try everything to make the tin acceptable to me first and then if I was not satisfied I would go that route. I would leave old patches as they are unless they are hideous -- old patches will always looks better than new ones on an old trunk. You can steel wool the tin to get the surface rust off or you can take a drill with a wire head and grind it down to get it shinny again -- a process not for the faint of heart. If the rust has perforated the tin in places then of course grinding will not help. That trunk will look great with the canvas stripped off, the tin shined up or cleaned up, and the wood slats refinished. Looks like the tin may have originally been painted black, which is another option, Hope this helps a little! One other go all out option -- you can actually buy new tin for these...
What you have is a very inexpensive (when it was sold ) cross slat barrel top trunk. These less expensive styles only had small amounts of embossed tin on them. The rest, sides, and front are paper covered. Also there were no latches on these, only a 3/4 valance, and the cheapest lock made. The wood handles are probably something someone put on. Wood handles were used on earlier trunks (1870s to early 1880s), but not on trunks of yours which is from around 1890 or so.
Jim
hmsantiquetrunks.com
I really like the look of this. I have 3 steamer trunks, one of which is a wardrobe, but I have yet to get my hands on anything this ornate. I was a dome top soooo bad!!
Nice job on the refinish fearghais -- you have given this trunk new life!!
In the last pic, it isn't hump-back. Is it upside down or what?
Blunderbuss2 - it's laying on it's side to show the bottom.