Steamer Trunk (ca. 1908)

The Restored Steamer Trunk

A recent project to come through the shop was the restoration of an old steamer trunk.The customer who owned the piece said it has passed down through her family and that she would like to have it restored. Not much is known about this trunk except that the lock that was on the trunk said "The H&A Lock Company Patented December 10th 1907" around the keyhole. There were no indications that this lock was a replacement so I assume it to be the original. If that is true then the trunk would have to have been made after that date and was probably made at the earliest sometime in 1908. 

The trunk was made of pine that was covered in canvas or linen and tin. The wood slats that are mounted to the surface appeared to be made of Chestnut. The trunk was also adorned with leather straps and handles as well as a lock and fasteners, making it quite a chore to open and close the trunk, and also making it hard for the contents to unintentionally escape!

The condition of the trunk as it came to me was pretty bad. The exterior straps and handles had rotted and were largely missing. There were also significant portions of the canvas missing from the top. The interior of the trunk, which had been papered was torn and brittle, and also smelled of mildew. In essence, this trunk really needed some help! That being said, the damage was reversible and the customer and I decided to go ahead with the project. Below are a few photos of the trunk as it came into the shop.

The front

 The back.

 

The top.

Missing handles from the sides.

The interior with the rotted paper lining.

This photo is of the inner tray which was also papered.

After removing the paper from the interior and removing the finish from the Chestnut slats, the entire trunk was masked with newspaper with the exception of the portions that were covered in tin, which was originally painted black. The Photos below shows this part of the project

After it was masked, The tin portions were painted with Rust inhibiting black spray paint. This quickly brought the black look back to these sections. After the paint had dried the paper was carefully removed.

These next few photos show the interior after it was sanded. After the interior was sanded it was painted with Kilz primer. This is not standard procedure for me, but I thought it was a good idea to try to contain the mildew smell in the interior.

After the paint had dried on the interior, the new paper was applied to the entire interior and the tray. Below are some photos of the interior after the paper was applied.

The exterior of the trunk was finished with shellac to bring back the nice brown color of the canvas. The lock was also replaced due to the fact that someone had broken the original trying to open it. The leather straps and handled were also replaced. Here are a few photos of the completed trunk.

At the end I included two photos of the old lock which was kept with the trunk as part of its history.

Completed Dome Trunk (ca.1880)

After completing the finish work and the restoration of the paper interior the last steps in the restoration were to attach the new handles and make a key. Below are some photos of the new handles being attached as well as the completed trunk with it's new key. The tassel on the key might be a little overkill but it helps to keep the key from being lost. If you would like to read the previous post on the restoration of this trunk and a little trunk history follow this link:

http://johnmarkpower.blogspot.com/2010/05/dome-trunk-ca-1880.html

Once the old broken handles were removed, The trunk was discolored and had old nail holes in it. I patched the nail holes and touched up the tin to look like the rest of the side.

Traditionally, the handle would be attached with nails that were forked at the end. the nails would then be bent over the inside surface. The paper the n covered over the nail ends. Because the paper was already in place, I opted to use screws instead to attach the handles. the screw heads are then covered over by the handle end covers.The next two photos show the new handles with new reproduction end covers installed.

The next three photos show the completed trunk.

Dome Trunk (ca. 1880)

One of my current projects is a dome trunk that dates to around 1880. The metal brackets that connect the wooden parts on the trunk are stamped "Pat Mar 80" which I interpret as Patent March 1880. The timing is right , since these style trunks were in vogue around this time.

There are many different styles of trunks that were made for the past 200 or so years. the heyday of the trunk was the later half of the 19th century into the 20th century. the fall of the trunk was the suitcase and I assume travel by air. In their time, trunks were used for extended travel or for permanent relocation and were seen aboard steam ships, trains and stage coaches. In fact, the reason for the domed top on this trunk is to ensure that the trunk goes on the top of the stack rather than having trunks stacked on top of it, possibly damaging the contents.

The construction of this trunk is a basic case made from pine. the outside is covered in tin that is painted black as well as tin pressed to look like alligator skin which is painted brown. The tin is fixed to the case with nails and the tin is partially covered by retaining slats made from Elm which also help to add strength to the whole trunk.
The inside of the trunk is lined with wall paper and is accented with chromolithograph prints of Victorian scenes. the prints offer some possible clues towards the intended user. Often a man's trunk will have images of men and a woman's case images of women. The dominant image in this trunk is of children playing, but there is one image of a woman, so my guess is that this case was intended to be used by children or possibly by a mother. The dimensions are a little smaller than most trunks, so this may have been for children. The chromolithograph prints are really interesting and there were many different images available.
I believe this trunk was made in England. This would account for the use of Elm for the slats in the place of Oak. Below is a photo of some workers standing outside a trunk factory from about the same time period this trunk was made followed by some photos of the trunk and the chromolithograph prints as it all came to me.

The dome trunk.

The trunk open showing the tray with bonnet and shirt compartments and the chromolithographic prints

A detail photo showing one of the prints. The scene depicts children being pulled by a sled attached to a dog! The other images are pussy willow branches, a hound dog, and a songbird.

This image shows the children with a dog surrounded by birds and flowers. The restoration of the dome trunk involves two very different processes. the first is the restoration of the outside of the trunk and the second is the restoration and stabilization of the paper on the inside of the trunk. the first set of photos below deal with the restoration of the outside of the Trunk.

The first step was to remove the finish from the Elm slats. They were then repaired, sanded and stained to the color of the original finish. Below are two photos of the slats with the finish removed and one after the slats were stained.

the next step was to paint the black sections. the old paint had really worn from the black sections so they needed to be repainted. The best way to do this was to mask off the parts that would not get painted and spray a paint on that would attach well to rust and metal. Below are five photos detailing this operation. I only repainted what sections were originally black.

The next two photos show the trunk with all of the black sections repainted and the wood ready for French Polishing.

The wood and the alligator pressed tin sections got coated with French Polish which brought out the color of the paint and the stain that I added. below is photo of the trunk during this process and close to completion. The second half of the restoration dealt with the paper inside. all of the hinged parts had torn and needed to be repaired.Below are two lids that had become completely separated. the process of restoring them was different since each was made differently.

The grey lid above was made from cardboard and had simply torn. What I did to restore the hinge was to create a new hinge out of cardboard strips and canvas. I then created a slit in the two broken sections and inserted the hinge into the slits and glued it in place. the result is a properly working lid with no visible hinge. here are some photos detailing the hinge creation.

the blue tape held the two pieces of cardboard together while I attached the canvas to the back
The completed hinge.

attaching the broken section of the lid.

This lid was made of pine which was first covered with canvas and then paper. the hinge point had leather straps which worked as hinges. I was able to pull back the canvas and attach new leather hinges and then cover them over with the old canvas and paper. Below are some photos.

Here is a photo of the bonnet tray and the lids restored.