And now the ultimate in luxury luggage: A Hartmann wardrobe trunk, probably from about 1925.

Lost momentum there. I took my pictures for this post, then we had family visit and I forgot all about it.

Look at this baby:

It's a Hartmann top-of-the-line wardrobe trunk from probably about 1925. It would take a strapping porter to haul it around, as it weighs about as much as a smallish piano. And that's before you load it up. It's furniture.

But look at all the fittings inside! Hangers, drawers, and a removable case. Everything is engineered brilliantly to stay put when the trunk is on its side or upside down. The drawers and the inside of the trunk are lined with what I think is silk. The hardware is silvery colored. Here are more pictures.

This cloth curtain fastens over the hangers to keep dust off the clothes.

Cool wooden hangers.

This interesting gadget is a lever which is activated when you close the top on the trunk. It latches up the other latches. So you only have to manage one latch yourself. The trunk does the rest.

This is a thick plushy pad in the lid of the trunk to protect the clothes on hangers.

Here it is again.

The top drawer. Note how it's shaped to fit the contour of the top of the trunk.

This lever holds the drawers in place during shipping.

Faaaaaan - cy.

Not sure what this is for exactly. I doubt it's really a briefcase, though it looks like one. Socks? Ties? Collars? Handkerchiefs?

This is another view of that lever thingie, where the lid comes down and pushes it.

This is how it looks closed. 

Original owner's initials. I know who it is but am not saying as it's an old La Crosse family and I was asked by the person who sold this to me not to make a big deal of it. Not that they care about the trunk; they threw it away in a dumpster.

"Gibraltarized" apparently means "framed in steel so it's too heavy to move." Seriously. This baby is solid.

Right now the trunk is pretending to be a table in the living room. It's actually got a bunch of kitty litter in it right now because it smells pretty mildewy. Someday I need to replace the curtain thingie because it's got holes now. I just need to find some upholstery fabric that would coordinate with the silk on the drawers. 

I love this thing.

Cost was $20 at a moving sale. Wow.