Nothing much was grabbing me on the auction tables this week so I moseyed to the back room to check out the furniture. I didn’t expect to find anything there to buy because I’m not in the market for furniture.
In the back were some men’s bikes ready for those souls who vowed this year to exercise more. Nearly hidden beneath the pile were a vintage wooden baby bed with slats and a cute little child’s chair with a rattan seat.
Moving on, I came upon three other items that stopped me: Two vintage wooden heirloom trunks and a modern green steamer trunk with a New York luggage label.
I ignored the steamer trunk and instantly examined the heirlooms. They were intriguing because I knew that at some point, at some time, they had held someone’s most valued treasures. And I’m always curious about who that someone was.
The trunks were sturdily made of wood and metal, but cosmetically they needed work. They were dusty, but all the metalwork – locks, hinges, etc – seemed to be in place. Opening the tops, which took some effort, I found that the interiors were in pretty good shape.
On the top of one was a torn hand-written water-stained label denoting what had once been inside. I could make out these words:
“miniatures. diplomas. mementos. Marple family things.”
The trunks were similar, so I’m assuming they came from the same estate. I would’ve loved to have seen what heirlooms had been stored in them. Who did they belong to and what did she keep inside it? I’m assuming that the owner was a woman – a grandmother or a mother. The family obviously kept the treasures – or maybe put them up for auction; the items could easily have been on the auction tables – and offered the trunks for sale as furniture.
From my research, I found that people kept everything from Bibles to photos to books to important documents in these trunks. A person on one site remembered climbing on top of her grandmother’s trunk as a child. She inherited the trunk.
I can recall having a sense of my grandmother having a black trunk when I was a child, but I don’t remember what was in it. She likely used it for storing clothes rather than treasures.
The two wooden trunks at auction were of the slatted flat-top style. These were made from 1870 to 1920, according to the website Eagle Trunk Designs, which restores trunks. I’m not sure when these were actually made but they did resemble the flat tops on the website.
While these were made of wood, trunks manufactured from the 1600s to 1800s were mostly covered in animal hides – deer, horse and cow. By the 1700s, brass tacks were used to hold the hides in place, the bands were leather and handles were forged metal. Most trunks made by saddle and harness makers, according to the Eagle Trunk website.
Lots of changes occurred in trunk-making after 1850. One of the most popular trunks was the Jenny Lind, named after a famous Swedish singer. From the side, the trunks (there were apparently several styles) had the shape of a loaf of bread or keyhole. They became a hit in this country in 1850 when Lind came to the United States to perform in concerts arranged by P.T. Barnum (of the Ringling Brothers circus). I had come often across the name Jenny Lind -“The Swedish Nightingale” – on a reproduction Wheaton bottle.
Trunks continued to evolve, with steamer trunks (1880-1930), wardrobe trunks (described as a traveling chest of drawers – I’ve seen those in the movies) and automobile trunks (tucked on the back of an early car like the Ford Model T). I found some ads from the 1890s touting wall and canvas trunks; they were selling for $5 and $6 then.
The trunks at auction were sold at pretty reasonable prices, too: $15 each. At that price, the buyer could easily get them restored. I found one website selling restored trunks from $320 to $930, and another site, from $495 to $1,600. Restoration Hardware was selling a large silver coffee trunk (which could be used as a coffee table or console) for $1,695.
This site offered a list of links to resources for restoration (there are plenty of restorers out there), sales and more. After frequently getting requests for research about trunks, the Smithsonian Institution put together a list of articles.
