RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: tcw25 on Tuesday 23 July 24 17:29 BST (UK)
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A relative inherited the wooden chest shown in the attached photo, which was supposedly passed down -- ultimately via the Gaskill/Gaskell family of Lancashire -- from an unknown ancestor of ours who reportedly owned schooners. We assume the engraved "CL 1727", which is visible in the photo, refers to the ancestor, and we'll try to follow Ancestry.co.uk hints backwards from our known ancestors until, hopefully, we find someone with those initials from the early 18th C.
Does anyone have other suggestions, specifically given the maritime angle to this mystery? Also, is this what sea chests even looked like in the 18th Century? I am turning up much more rustic looking chests via Google Images.
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What is the interior like?
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Looks like a linen chest from that era.
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That’s what I was thinking and why I asked about the interior. It may have been the property of a ship owning family but not very suitable for sea going.
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I was going to say have you got a photo of the interior of the lid showing the hinges?
It does look in too good condition to have ever been bashed around at sea.
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Not a sea chest -- sea chests do not have legs like that. As stated in other posts, this is a linen chest of the 18th / 19th Century. Unless the date can be proven, it is suspicious as some of our Victorian ancestors liked to add embellishments to furniture.
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Thanks, all. That makes sense, with the initials and year carved as an embellishment (since presumably initials weren't usually carved into linen chests?)
An interior photo is attached.
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To me the screws look modern so it looks like the hinges have been replaced.
My uneducated guess would be it was Victorian / Edwardian and it was bought with the inscription in place as others have said to make it look older at first glance.
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The relatives who own this chest have certainly had some (probably insensitive) restoration work done over the years, but the wood and nails appear to my eye to be original. I just can't gauge their age or the reason for engraving initials on such a chest.
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It looks as if it should have had a box on the left hand side. I would expect to see a similar block of wood on the front left hand side to match the one at the back. If so, it have been intended to store Candles.
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It's what in my family might have been referred to as a kist - we had one when I was a child, though without legs. I suspect the date might be genuine, though obviously I can't prove it. However, it does look pretty old, and competently made (jointed, fixed with dowels/pegs), though not of the very finest quality - rustic might be a good description. The hinges are obviously modern, and you can see the holes where much larger hinges had been fixed, but the reinforcements holding the lid together look like a much older repair.
I suspect an item like this could have been used for storing almost anything (or everything) a family owned. Linen, clothes, family Bible, miscellaneous odds and ends, etc, etc. And it could double up as somewhere to sit.
I wonder if it could have been a wedding present, and CL was the bride, this being a key item for the new home? But something like this could have changed hands or location many times in 300 years, so finding its ultimate origin may be challenging.
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Our family called these chests 'coffer chests.' They typically had legs and a flat lid.
Here is a sampling of the type. I too think that this has some age to it and it has been repaired. Very useful shape for storing 'stuff' and we used it for casual seating with a couple of cushions that children had to sit on while adult visitors/parents had the chairs!
http://www.rootschat.com/links/01tbi/
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It's what in my family might have been referred to as a kist - we had one when I was a child, though without legs.
Errr, that was the kist, not me :-[ :o ;D ;D ;D
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The initials and date look to have been engraved at different times to me.
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A Sea Chest on offer tomorrow at my local auction house.
https://www.arthurjohnson.co.uk/catalogue/lot/34ef41b944e7b405fcc99828ee76cda7/85b8bffc5290bd741c39072b62f6d71b/the-saturday-auctions-27th-july-2024-lot-120/
ADD A slightly earlier Coffer.
//www.arthurjohnson.co.uk/catalogue/lot/daab33f697de98d90b44b5ccaf651a49/85b8bffc5290bd741c39072b62f6d71b/the-saturday-auctions-27th-july-2024-lot-150/