steamer trunk help

nelsonlake81 · Post by **nelsonlake81** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 2:29 am

I am currently trying to find out any info on a steamer trunk.
Its in really bad shape but I don't want to touch it till I know
More about it
Any help would be great thanks

curiousgeorge · Post by **curiousgeorge** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 1:49 pm

If you could post some pictures it would help us to help you. At this point we would only be guessing in the dark.

nelsonlake81 · Post by **nelsonlake81** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:00 pm

thanks for reminding me
the last pictures is horrible but its a picture of the steel plate on top it as two M's side by side there are others all over the trunk

beeg · Post by **beeg** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 5:13 pm

What info do you want about it?

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 5:21 pm

beeg wrote:What info do you want about it?

Everything that you know!:rolleyes:

nelsonlake81 · Post by **nelsonlake81** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 5:48 pm

Thanks Dusty that's about where I'm at in this process
I have found very little helpful stuff in my searches
I'm looking for anything that might get me one step closer
Right now I'm stuck

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 5:58 pm

This is non-specific but you may be able to gleen some information since you have a better view of the trunk than we do.

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics ... cyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trunk_%28luggage%29

nelsonlake81 · Post by **nelsonlake81** » Sun Oct 18, 2009 7:47 pm

That help a lot found out who made it .
Its a Martin Maier est.1865-1915
Thanks for the help so far

iclark · Post by **iclark** » Mon Oct 19, 2009 12:29 am

nelsonlake81 wrote:thanks for reminding me
the last pictures is horrible but its a picture of the steel plate on top it as two M's side by side there are others all over the trunk

the "steel plate" in the last picture looks like it might have been one of the leather strap guides. leather straps were commonly used to hold the trunk securely closed. the lock was for security, not closure. think belt-loop for these plates.

the third photo shows a partition in the top. it would have come down aligned with the major divider in the removable tray that sat on those cleats on the inside of each end. the tray might have had leather loop handles attached or it might have arched on the sides enough to put hand holds above the edge of the lower trunk. you can likely look at the wear/rub pattern on the inside of the lid ends and bottom ends to see what the shape of the tray was.

other than discouraging stevedores from stacking other trunks on top of it, I do not know why the top would have been domed that way. I suppose it could have been to accommodate either a lady's hat or some sort of musical instrument.

when my grandmother and her sisters sailed around the world (commercial liner) in the late fifties, each of them took a steamer trunk. the 2 trunks that wound up in my garage are flat on top. one has a removable tray like yours would have had and one has some pivoting trays like you see in tackle boxes. I think one of the sisters had one that the top arched but the arch was the same all the way across the lid. I'm not saying that well. looked at from the end, it was arched. looked at from the front, it was straight. it has been more than 45 years since I saw that trunk, so I do not remember much about it. I was told the staterooms were too small to hold the passengers and their trunks. the stevedores/stewards would bring them up from storage every few days as the passengers needed to get stuff out or put it in the trunks.

horologist · Post by **horologist** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:49 pm

Take a look at:

http://www.shenandoahrestoration.com/

Lots of information and you can get spare parts.