Here we have a black canvas covered brass bound Jenny Lind era trunk, in incredible condition for being over 140 years old. We purchased this from a family in Lynnfield, MA.on September 9, 2007. They were moving to Arizona and looking to lighten their load. Funny thing is when we purchased it the original lid compartment & insert tray were missing.(See picture with new old looking wallpaper) As the couple were doing more cleaning a few days later, I got a call from them. It went something like this:

Micheal,

 This is Gene Gangemi, I was finishing cleaning out the garage today & I believe I found the tray & some other pieces in a bag that may go to that trunk you bought from us. Oh,and there's a key as well. Are you interested in picking them up?

My Response:

Gene, I'll be there in a half hour! 

 To my delite, I found all the missing pieces that Gene had put aside years earlier when he decided to put in wallpaper.

Jenny Lind trunks, in themselves are hard to find, especially in this fine condition.This trunk was well taken care of through the years, except the day Gene added that wallpaper.

With that being said! Look closely at her, she is 97% ORIGINAL condition. We say 97% because we had to replace three pieces of leather. The two pull down leather straps & the leather lid lifter above the lock. What is original you ask? Well let us draw up a list.

Insert tray, lid compartments, document envolope with red paper trim, (That was a toughy to get out & back in) original pull tabs on the insert tray, both cloth lid stays, leather handles in fine working condition, oak slats, brass top nails, brass bound metal strapping, lock, latch & key, leather buckles, leather strap tabs, dust band.......etc, etc, get the picture!

What did we do to restore her? Not much I have to be honest here. We removed the new old looking wallpaper and all the glue residue. (I think Gene use a gallon of glue) Then we sanded the inside down & applied a few coates of Fromsby's Tung oil. We removed all the original wallpaper off the lid compartments , along with the document envolope & redpaper trimming. Once that was all done, everything was also sanded & tung oiled. We  re-installed the lid compartment & envolpope & trimming as you see her now.

On the outside? We lightly sanded the oak slats, cleaned up the black canvas and gave her some black shoe polish. All the brass bound strapping & trim were polish back to a nice clean shine. All brass top nails were polish as well. The bottom was sanded & repainted black. After that, well!  We just added a coat or two of tung oil to the entire exterior and watched her sing again.

If you like Jenny Lind trunks? This is the one you'll cherish for years to come..............WOW