In the 19th and early 20th centuries, trunks were the equivalent of suitcases when traveling by stagecoach, buggy, train or ship. But they also served as a convenient household storage container for everything from blankets to hats or toys.
Eventually, the bulky travel trunks gave way to lighter, handier alternatives like suitcases. Trunks in time became yet another outdated artifact of an earlier era. Console Table
Today, trunks that survived are mostly used for decoration or light storage and generally only available through antique vendors.
Unless you are lucky enough to live or travel near Ocean View, where Norman Justice has been building and restoring trunks for 35 years. Amazingly, despite his age — 93 — his shop is still open six days a week.
And he is out there all day, refurbishing old trunks or creating new ones that are reminiscent of early designs.
You should stop by and check out his trunk preservation efforts.
"I am not making a lot of money at it but I am having a lot of fun," he said during a break at his shop on Cedar Neck Road one May morning.
Justice, a native of Ocean View, got interested in trunks while living in Rhode Island, when he bought one to convert to a coffee table for the family home. Buoyed by the experience of restoring that trunk, he found another at a yard sale, restored it and placed it in the front yard with a "for sale" sign on it.
"Three hours later, a lady stopped by and bought it," he recalled.
From then on, he started scouring yard sales, auctions, antique stores and other places "looking for trunks to restore," he said.
When Justice retired and returned to Delaware, he brought his growing trunk restoration business with him, setting up shop at his family homestead, where he now lives. He also started using pickers to help locate antique trunks for restoration. And he started building trunks from scratch, replicating the designs of the past.
"Finding little trunks was getting harder and harder," he said. "I had some carpentry experience so I decided to starting building my own."
Justice's design scenario is roughly based on a trunk style referred to as "Jenny Lind," named after a Swedish singer who toured the United States with P.T. Barnum in the 1850s. Many of the desirable Jenny Lind style trunks are shaped like a loaf of bread.
And they are often decorated with fancy, tooled leather, brass or wood banding, locks, other hardware and elaborate interior finishing, including trays to hold smaller objects.
Justice buys most of his wood, primarily pine, at a local lumber dealer but many of the other materials come from suppliers outside of Delaware. Leather is commonly used in trunks for straps, hinges and other and Justice orders his from an Amish harness maker in Pennsylvania.
Brass studs and other hardware comes from a supplier in South Dakota; locks from Ohio. Interior fabric to line the inside of the trunk is purchased from a variety of sources, including local shops.
Justice has designed a number of jigs to help form the size and shape of the trunk while being fabricated. The trunk designs have come by trial and error and Justice, a quiet, articulate man, gets a little defensive if too many questions get asked by customers about his design and construction techniques.
Occasionally, a customer will ask if they can watch him build a trunk from scratch.
"I tell them 'no' and I am going to stop working until you leave," he said.
Typically, it takes Justice a day and a half to build a trunk from scratch. His shop complex is divided by task. One building is used for wood working and storage. Another space is reserved for finishing the inside of the trunk. The interior fabric inventory includes "gimp" a thin material that is used for upholstery trim. Final assembly is on outside work tables strategically placed between his various buildings.
"I try to work out here all year, unless it gets too cold," he said.
Another building houses completed trunks, both restored and fabricated. The showroom is so crammed with trunks large and small that navigation is a challenge until Justice clears a path in the aisles. Restored trunks in his shop run as high as $350 although the average is considerably less. New, hand built trunks range from $140 to $170, a real bargain considering the craftsmanship and detail. He has about 200 trunks on hand.
And he clearly loves interacting with customers. In fact, his showroom is a photo gallery of happy buyers, posing with their newly acquired trunk.
In the 1800s and early 1900s, many trunk styles were available. Along with the Jenny Lind style, there were Saratoga, steamer, camelback, cabin, hat, dome top and wardrobe trunks. And some of the early automobiles had trunks attached to the rear of the vehicle, a precursor to the storage space that eventually was part of the design.
Some higher end trunks, often used for extended travel, even have separate compartments for jewelry, toiletry, hats, shoes, shirts or blouses, collars and, in some cases, an area for hanging garments.
Trunks increased in popularity as more people migrated west in the 19th century. Justice said Wells Fargo even had a trunk designed for hauling freight on horse-drawn Conestoga wagons.
"The earliest trunk I have is about 1840," he said.
In his lifetime, Justice has seen most variations and his showroom is crammed full of restored examples from the 1800s.
"I have, over time, had nearly every style except, there is one trunk that turns into a bed." he said. "I never had one of them."
Though southern Delaware is filled with shops that restore and sell antiques, it is rare to find a craftsman who is committed to replicating early designs. But that is precisely what Justice is doing at his wonderful shop in Ocean View.
Bedroom Furniture Companies "I am going to do this as long as it is fun and as long as I am healthy enough to do the work," he said.