When I first saw the small trunk sitting atop a glass case, I thought “treasure chest.” It was black all over with stained wooden planks and tiny round nail heads both decorating and holding the metal plating in place.
As I looked closer at the trunk on the auction table, I saw that embedded in the stiff leather covering were incised starbursts inside diamond-shaped designs.
When I opened the chest, I saw that it was lined with thin paper that had aged all over, and torn and stained in a lot of places. Still, it looked good for its age – whatever that was.
The inside top, though, was as interesting as the outside of the trunk.
The lining was bordered in a design that mimicked movement of something resembling a series of arrows. In the center were small Victorian stickers with inspiring words, some romantic. Each corner held its own sticker cordoned off by its own border.
I was very familiar with Victorian stickers and cards because they come up at auction pretty often, most bearing little 19th-century girls with curls, bows and frilly dresses. In fact, they turn up pretty often in scrapbooks, indicating that they had been kept as collections.
I learned that these stickers were part of what were called Victorian scraps – die-cut, embossed and gum-backed images on printed paper – and were placed in scrapbooks along with trading cards and other such items as memorabilia and keepsakes. Many of the ones kept during the Victorian period had romantic themes, although the subject matter varied. Scrapbooks were kept by both adults and children.
The stickers in the trunk at auction bore such messages as “Remember me,” “I fondly love thee, ” “True love be my guide,” “Truth” and “Love, Faith and Purity.”
I assumed that it was a doll trunk belonging to a little girl, rather than a salesman’s sample intended to persuade a woman into buying a larger version.
Googling, I could find no other small trunk like it. Most were from the 19th century with paper covering, like many of the other small ones I’d seen at auction before. At an auction once, I came across a very large trunk in which someone had stored dolls because there was a note indicating such. Another time, there was a child’s keepsake chest still filled with her photos and other items.
The trunk at this auction was about the same size: 8 1/2″ tall, 11 3/4″ wide and 8″ deep – but nicer.
I bought the trunk with no intention of keeping it but selling it on eBay. I hope others will find it as enticing as I did.
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If you’d like the trunk as much as I do and would love to have it, this is your chance. You can bid on it (and other eBay items in my store “Old Stuff Reborn”) at: http://ebay.to/1TxW5mF
