QUESTION: I recently purchased a vintage trunk. It has no makers mark on the bottom or inside, so I was wondering what year it was made and who made it.
ANSWER: What you have is a flat-top steamer trunk, which from the looks of it, probably dates to between the 1910s and 1920s..
Steamer trunks, which got their name from their storage location on a steamer ship, first appeared in the late 1870s, although most date from between 1880 and 1920. While some had flat tops, those with rounded tops were for those who wanted to try to have their trunk placed on the top of piles in the baggage compartments, so they wouldn’t be damaged. When people traveled, they did so for longer periods because travel by train, and especially sailing ships or coastal steamers, was slow.
Steamer trunks generally came in many styles, including the Jenny Lind, Saratoga, monitor, steamer or cabin, barrel-staves, octagon or bevel-top, wardrobe, dome-top, barrel-top, wall trunks, and even full dresser trunks. Since these differing styles only lasted for a decade or two, and—along with their hardware—can be extremely helpful in dating an unmarked trunk.
Trunks generally consisted of a base trunk box made of pine covered with protective and decorative materials. Some of the earliest trunks sported studded hide or leather and looked much like the furniture of the same period since many furniture makers also produced trunks. Later coverings included paper, canvas, plain or embossed tin, with an uncounted assortment of hardware and hardwood slats to hold it down.
There were hundreds of trunk manufacturers in the United States. A few of the larger and well known companies included Rhino Trunk & Case, C.A. Taylor, Haskell Brothers, Martin Maier, Romadka Bros., Goldsmith & Son, Crouch & Fitzgerald, M. M. Secor, Winship, Hartmann, Belber, Oshkosh, Seward, and Leatheroid. One of the largest American manufacturers of trunks was Seward Trunk Company of Petersburg, Virginia. Shwayder Trunk Company of Denver, Colorado later became Samsonite. Another was the English luxury goods manufacturer H.J. Cave trading since 1839. Some of the better known French trunk makers included Louis Vuitton, Goyard, Moynat, and Au Départ.
The easiest way to date any trunk is by examining its style. The Jenny Lind trunk, named after the Swedish singer who toured the United States between 1850 and 1852, had a distinctive hour glass or keyhole shape when viewed from the side.
Saratoga trunks, on the other hand, were the premium trunks of many manufacturers and encompassed nearly every other style of trunk manufactured before the 1880s. Saratogas had a variety of complex compartments, trays, and heavy duty hardware.
Monitor-tops date from the late 1870s to the late 1910s. They had rounded front and rear corners which formed a lying-down "D" when viewed from the side. Earlier examples usually included labor-intensive hardwood slats while there was a revival much later with rarer, all-metal ones being used.
Steamer trunks, sometimes referred to as flat-tops, first appeared in the late 1870s, although most of them date date from the 1880s to the 1920s. Their flat or slightly curved tops, usually covered in canvas, leather or patterned paper, distinguished them from others. They stood about 14 inches tall to accommodate steamship luggage regulations. Some old catalogs referred to them as "packers," while a "steamer" trunk actually referred to one often called a cabin trunk.
Cabin trunks, often called "true" steamer trunks, were the equivalent of today's carry-on luggage. They were low-profiled and small enough to fit under the berths of trains or in the cabin of a steamer. Manufacturers made them with flat tops and an inner tray compartment to store the owner's valuables deemed too valuable to stow in the baggage car or ship's hold.
Barrel-staves, made from the late 1870s to the mid-1880s had horizontal instead of vertical slats, giving them a distinctive look.
Bevel-tops, dating from the 1870s to 1900, had a distinct trapezoidal shape when viewed from the side, although the earlier ones usually had a much shorter flattened top section than the later ones.
Wardrobe trunks had to be stood on end to be opened and had drawers on one side and hangers for clothes on the other. Many of the better ones also included buckles/tie-downs for shoes, removable suitcases/briefcases, privacy curtains, mirrors, and makeup boxes. Because of their large size and weight, people used these for extended travel by ship or train.
A dome-top trunk had a high, curved top that could rise up to 25 to 30 inches. Included were camel-backs which had a central, vertically running top slat that was higher than the others, hump-backs which were the same but had no slat in the center of the top, and barrel-tops, which had high arching slats that were all the same height. These trunks date from the 1870s to the 1900s.
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