I found another old wardrobe trunk last week. I will share some photos of it when I get some taken. It's pretty special. In the meantime, here are pictures of another that we have had for some while. I think I got it at an auction. It's a Hartmann Trip-Lex, meant for mass transit business travel, probably 1930s or 1940s vintage. It looks like this:
It comes apart in two sections. Just one latch holds it together and closed, but that latch does a great job because of the careful design.
The section shown on the bottom here is for hanging clothes, while the removable section is covered with a dust cover.
It came with wooden hangers. The metal bars on which the hangers are sitting extend so you can spread the hung clothes out to air once you are unpacking.
I use this trunk to store seldom-worn formal clothes. Here are 3 dresses on the hangers. There's a nice bar that clips in to hold them all in place.
On the other side, the dust cover unclips and folds back to reveal two folded-goods compartments with stabilizing ribbons.
Here are more of my too-fancy-to-wear-in-real-life clothes, tied neatly into the compartments.
Clip the dust cover back in place, and the trunk goes back together and latches.
Here's the Hartmann label.
And here's my paper label so I don't have to open all my trunks to find what I need. We store out-of-season clothes and bed linens in old trunks, as well as music CDs and family pictures.
I'll post more of our trunks and old cases soon.
In the meantime, if you'd like to learn more about the Hartmann company, which is still producing wonderful luxe luggage today, click
here for the company's history on its website. And to read about wardrobe trunks in general, with some great photos of different makers' work, click
here.
