Posted 12 years ago
Denmark
(1 item)
Hello
I have recently purchased this chest and would like to know if anyone can tell me anything about it ... how old is it? and where does it come from? ... and other information are welcome.
It has some really nice metal fittings and there are both leather and wood trimmings, it has small iron wheels underneath, between the pieces of wood there is a pattern.
Lene Nea Lund - Denmark
This as you know is a beautiful high quality flat top trunk, made from late 1880's to early 1890's. Part of the dating for this comes from the cast iron hardware that was typical of its time. Without a label it is hard to discern who would have made it -- although whoever did was a high quality craftsman who poured all of the high end elements they could into this trunk. An interesting element in this trunk is the slat clamps -- you will notice a particular pattern -- a "basket weave" effect on these pieces. This is typical of the kind of pattern that the Taylor Trunk company made. However Taylor usually stamped their trunks with their mark, a double X, or at the very least incorporated the Taylor name on the hardware somewhere. This trunk is of interest to me because it has the same fingering and cast iron slat clamp patterns as one on my site -- and oak slat trunk -- made with the same high quality. Not only that, my trunk has the exact same lock plate as yours -- first time I have come across one similar. This tells me that there is a possibility that mine and yours was made by the same maker who bought unmarked high end Taylor pieces to assemble their trunks. Also the number 4 latches I believe were patented by Taylor -- my trunk has the no 5 latch. Are there any other markings or dates on the hardware that you can see? Beautiful trunk, most likely American made. Thanks for the post.
Hello Trunkman
Thank you for your post ... Now I'm a little wiser about how old mine trunk is ... I can not find anything xx anywhere or name Taylor ... do you know where to find the mark, or was it random where they put it?
Do you have any links to a web page that says something about these trunks and their history.
Lene
I do not believe you will find a Taylor mark on this trunk. It would be obvious to see. This trunk was made by someone else with generic Taylor parts. I do not have any links, and some of my information has come from books and other references. Good luck with your research.
100 % American trunk, probably from the mid 1880s. While Taylor's hardware had a basket weave pattern on the hardware, it has nothing to do with Taylor. My Sessions trunk hardware catalog has many pages of all kinds of hardware with the basket weave patten. Many trunk makers bought these parts and used them. Very few trunks can be identified by the hardware on them. The lock, same story. Thousands of these locks were put on a variety of trunks (I have a trunk with this lock too) Try not to get too hooked on who made what by the type of hardware, it is of no real help.
That is great information to know -- answers one of my longstanding question of the patterns on some of my hardware.