Posted 4 years ago
Im4anythin…
(91 items)
Picked up this Martin Maier Steel Bound Roll top Trunk last week the same time as the JC trunk I just posted. Measures in at 36L x 22D x 24 Tall. It doesn't have all the typical bells and whistle hardware. Quite frankly it has no typical MM hardware, much to my surprise. The wall construction is no thicker than the interior tray wall value itself so pretty thin. Has a cheap excelsior Lock. This trunk was 30 bucks & 20 minutes from home and I basically got it for the name plate, as the remaining hardware pieces are common. I am showing it just for the sake of showing that Martin Maier isn't always attributed with fancy and iron hardware. The interior is painted BLAAAA.. but you can see that there is a label on the top inside painted over, so curious to see whats under that come summer. Please forgive my photos as it was melting outside and my lens I guess was foggy. I was told MM was still in operation until 1921 so pretty sure this is one from the tail end or leading up to closing.
Decent find ,Some similar patents that may apply:
http://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pages/US986841-0.png
http://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pages/US607132-0.png
http://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pages/US781621-0.png
Something tells me that Martin's passing away in 1893 didn't help the company maintain it's flavor of excellence.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/57091536
Below is a link to some of The Martin Maier Companies final days of trying to stay afloat with a joint venture, delving into the automotive trunk business. Interesting to know.
http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/j/jacques/jacques.htm
Here is some advertising for automobile trunk:
https://books.google.com/books?id=Sh_nAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA6-PA27&lpg=RA6-PA27&dq=Martin+Maier+Trunk+building&source=bl&ots=4znY6cuEuV&sig=FKwC3fSVYMCKpL-OTtKMJqKQXU8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=tz4oVb3hNMGlyATnwoDQDg&ved=0CCkQ6AEwBDgK#v=onepage&q=Martin%20Maier%20Trunk%20building&f=false
As always Thanks for the post.
Thanks for the Loves much appreciated!! sanhardin, chrissylovescats, mtg75, Designer, Longings, yougottahavestuff, BigD338, bjb5859, Drill, FatBoy64, EJW-54, farmlady, blunderbuss2, fortapache, & officialfuel
Thanks Drill, again for the love and the patents. As well for the other interesting tid bits of MM history. I was think the same thing as far as the quality of material and trims certainly dropped off. They may have just had to cut costs like everyone else seems to have, after the turn of the century. Or the trend was to keep it lite for shipping weight costs etc..??? Also Drill I am looking for back hinge patents if you have some handy. If you do Thanks! You can send them to my email if you still have it and I have a bunch of makers labels to send you as well.