Posted 12 years ago
christine6
(1 item)
Found this old trunk in a relatives attic. I have been trying to research it, but there are no identifying numbers on the latches or hardware. Screws seem old, the metal is definitely old. Other than that it seems like it is in excellent condition. Can anyone help me with a general age range of this? Thank you so much for any help you might have to offer.
This is a beautiful trunk in great shape. By its form and hardware a safe guess is that it is European. I am not overly versed in these types of trunks so I will hazard a guess as to its age, with the hopes that other contributors will correct me if need be -- there are two brass rivets on the lock plate that have been painted black -- I see those rivets often on civil war era trunks as well as pre-civil war era. So I would place this trunk from between 1840 to 1860. I am pretty confident it is at least this old. Hope this helps a little...Thanks for posting it!
you should be able to identify the wood to determine where it's from. it looks kind of like red pine to me, although it's difficult to say from photos. it also looks like it was refinished at some time, but i could be wrong.
Thank you trunk man and ho2cultcha.
Yes, I would guess thewoodto be pine,and when I looked at the bottom of the trunk, it does not appear the exact color...so it would have been refinished at some point. If it is response, where would you guess it to be from ? And would that still date it to about 1840-1860? The screws look to be very old...They are round but not uniform. Most of the nailheads are small and square...do not look machine made at all.
Thank you both so much for your help and knowledge.
Christine
Sorry...auto-correct. "response" should have been "red pine".
I do not see how identifying the wood would help you know where it is from -- wood was imported from all over the world at this time. It certainly looks like pine, and probably was stained when it was refinished. Nails and screws can definitely help you date a piece, if you can access them and take them out and see how they were made -- however form and style and hardware can tell a similar story. There is a specific history of nails and screws you can look up that would help you. I say European because of the handles which appear to be cast iron, typical to French and German and English trunks.
Trunkman.....thank you! :). Yes, handles are cast iron. I can probably get husband to try to get one of the screws out....but don't know that I am knowledgable enough to be able to tell much from it in order to date it. Maybe once I do quite a bit more research. Having fun in the process....and I am definitely appreciating everyone's help...so thank you again!!!! :)
it probably would have made more economic sense to ship cast iron or metal pieces than common woods. i'm not a professional, but i would guess that if it is american wood - esp. pine, then it was probably made here. although very expensive wood used in laminates and inlays was shipped around the world, pine was not, since the shipping alone would be way more than what it was worth. if it is red pine, it would have been made somewhere in the northeast - probably. white pine was more common in the northern states - massachussetts, nh, vt, and red and yellow pines were more common in the southern part of the northeast - pennsylvania, maryland, ohio, etc...