Antique Trunks

JE sent me two very interesting leather covered domed antique trunks, complete with leather straps. This prompted me to write about something everyone seems to have, a steamer trunk.

We date steamer trunks by using simple historical logic. The earliest trunks (in America, 1600-1700) stored clothing, typically not stored in what we now call a “closet.”

In North America, early houses sometimes still boast wall-mounted pegs. I remember my grammar school in Illinois with a wall where we hung our snowsuits. Built-in wall closets didn’t usually exist for the purpose of hanging one’s garments prior to 1930 or so. Those of us who live in an old house complain of the tiny shallow reach-in closets. In fact walk-in closets didn’t architecturally appear until after World War II. People considered them a nice feature in the mass-produced suburban housing boom.

Prior to that people stored things in trunks, our earliest furniture form function as a table, a chair/bench and for storage, dating to early medieval times. Italians treated these trunks as status symbols, and called them “cassone.” Owning one meant you also owned good things to store away, a sign of wealth, as most folks possessed few possessions.

I See Many Trunks as an Appraiser

First, because they still function as storage for 21st century folks. Second because early American houses contained few closets. Architectural design in prerevolutionary America became subject to taxes, like the “closet tax” enacted under George III. Thus trunks became necessary and then saved for storage and still abound.

We call JE’s domed trunk a steamer, named after the type of vessel upon which it traveled, the steamship. Previous to the use of steam-powered sailing vessels, travelers were limited to the speed of the wind to get them where they wanted to go. By 1850 in America the paddle-wheel steamer began to ply the Great Lakes, and the passenger industry was born!

Folks needed to cart their belongings with them when they traveled. Today when we stuff our “ultra-light” bags into the overhead compartments, we can’t image hefting a 300 pound trunk overhead. But that’s what stevedores did.

Historical Logic Behind Trunks

The question I get asked the most about steamer trunks, aside from the worth, is about the age. Enter that historically based logic. Trunks with a flat-top and wrapped with oak slats or staves on the outside were built for travel when stacked. Which means, on a horse-drawn carriage, or later on a train. A trunk with brass tacks on the outside slid easier, which means a single gentleman pushed it. This style became popular with adventuresome single men during the Gold Rush Era. A square trunk, designed to hold ladies’ things, for example, millinery, which shouldn’t be flattened. If the trunk came with a domed top, it couldn’t stack or needed to go on top of the stack, the premium spot for a trunk. You don’t want the pressure of 15 trunks on your personal belongings, you want your trunk on the top.

Carved trunks mean furniture, stackable trunks mean travel. Trunk made of hardwood needed some kind of weatherproofing, such as a tin or a lead lining, or sometimes embossed tin facings (encaustic) externally. We call a bread-loaf shape trunk a Jenny Lind steamer, after the 19th century actress who made it part of her retinue. These stack in a honeycomb pattern, which took the weight off of the bottom most trunks. Nobody used trunks faced in leather during war times with leather in short supply. Think of the wooden Civil War trunks, the oak faced World War I ones, and the metal one used in World War II. Folks who wanted their trunks seen used leather, considered a classier upgrade to wood.

Most interestingly, people often beautifully wallpapered or even hand-painted and monogrammed the interiors of these trunks. Those higher-end trunks people received as gifts once in a  lifetime. I remember my first set of luggage given to me as a high school graduation present. A trunk contained a legacy, such as the marriage “hope chest.”

Finally, we come to the value

JE owns two trunks. The one with the pristine wallpaper inside the leather-covered case is the best one. This would sell, not for travel, and not for storage, but for its shabby chic rugged leather quality, for $1,100. The other leather trunk, JE tells me, has been “refinished” inside, meaning someone thought the old Victorian colored paper nasty, and stripped it away. This trunk would sell for $750. The kind of trunks I see most often are the smaller, flat-topped painted wooden chests with alternating wooden slats exterior, and plain old newspaper lining, and they can be worth less than $100. Here’s the names to look for in antique trunks for the best value: Louis Vuitton, Goyard, Moynat, Alligre & Dullac, Lavolaille, Paris (made in the US), Georges, and “Stores of the Louvre.” Of course these top hitters are all of French manufacture. Professions associated with trunks: “Malletiers” trunk makers and “Layetier/Packers;” those who “lay-in” goods and those who move those goods, once a regulated and then unionized profession.