Posted 5 years ago
Ttilley
(3 items)
How old do you think this is? Found at a flea market . It has a couple cracks and is missing anything leather.
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Posted 5 years ago
Ttilley
(3 items)
How old do you think this is? Found at a flea market . It has a couple cracks and is missing anything leather.
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Hello and welcome. It looks like you have a Jenny Lind trunk and I doubt it had any leather on it, sometimes they covered them with paper like that. They were popular around the civil war but I don't think the lock on your is original.
Here are some links you might find interesting:
http://www.thisoldtrunk.com/history/
http://oldtrunks.com/stagecoach-trunks/
The trunk itself is probably from around 1870's , it did have leather straps and I agree with FatBoy64, not original lock, greendog.
Thank you so much for the comments! It does not close properly with this lock so that’s why I took a closeup photo. I am going to find a more appropriate lock and decide what to do with the exterior. I think it is beautiful!
I notice that most people scrape the paper off the outside of a trunk. Is this part of a proper restore? I was going to find another lock, but it looks like this one has been on it for a long time and the color of the paper underneath is lighter. If I wanted to clean the outer paper and put a finish over it to preserve what is left, how would I do this? I got it for $35 and I thought it was a reasonable price.
Sorry for all the questions! I have never restored anything and I am a lover of history. There is so much remaining paper on the exterior of this trunk that I think that I want to try and preserve it. Any thoughts?
well it's your trunk, you can do it anyway that makes you happy, the word restore means to put back as close to original as possible, which is very hard to do, personally I would strip the paper, sand and finish the wood but that's just me. As for the lock, it may have been replaced 100 years ago for what ever reason, it looks like period cut nails were used, leave it as is, I've been at this for a while now, its's not always easy to be historically correct, do what makes you happy and do the best you can, greendog
Like Greendog says, you can do whatever you want with this, there aren't any kind of rules to follow. There does seem to be a lot of paper left compared to others you see that age so that is something. Just be careful cleaning it, water really does a number on the glue they used on a lot of these trunks so don't soak a sponge and try to clean it or that paper may just come off. Just a little bit of water at a time and take it slow and easy until you see how that works. You could probably put a coat of shellac on it to protect it if you want to go that route. I don't see the lock being a problem for you (the guys around here will be grinding their teeth muttering "it isn't period correct" (come on guys, you know you are) lol) but pretty much everyone who walks in to your place won't know and you'll be hearing "wow, cool" out of them. Good luck and have fun with it.