Swimming In Trunks

I like old stuff. Always have I guess. I like the look and feel of real antiques. I suppose that's why The Red Queen and I picked a house that's 150 years old... And why we're furnishing it with the real deal antiques.

I especially love my study, with its Victorian professor's desk with the slanted top and the 6'6" glass front lawyer's bookcase on the wall facing the desk.

Being a civil war re-enactor, my study is filled with accoutrements both real and reproduction. I decided I needed a place to keep some of my gear, so I began the search for the perfect trunk, It had to hold my stuff, and also fit under the low window of my room.

After much searching, I found it. Sheathed in tin with raised rosettes, used but use able, I even found a key that will work its ancient lock.

Trunks are cool. They make me happy. My brain whirs as I wonder what treasures used to lie within them. At one point they held someone's most prized posessions... If not, why have a nice trunk with a lock? No?
Sadly, the oldest local furniture store just went out of business. The new owner, if you can call a man who has been there for 68 years new, decided he was done. He was selling off the inventory and retiring. He grew up half a block from my house and knew The Confederate officer who built my house. (A story for another day)
Down in the lower level of his store were two trunks. Huge trunks. Beat up and missing some hardware, but they called to me. As it turns out, they were antiques when they were brought to the store... 98 years ago, to be used for storage. I asked the price.
He asked for an offer.
I made the laughable offer of $100, and he sutably laughed at it. He countered at $250 and a deal was struck. All I had to do was get them home.
Easier said than done.
So, after much inching and pinching, and adjusting the top of the Jeep, I rolled them home. One is now situated in my study taking the place of an old camp chair...

(dog shown for scale)

The other is in the unfinished dining room, awaiting the decision on its new locale... (Odds are on the foot of the king bed in the master bedroom)

(once again, dogs shown for scale)

As of yet, there is nothing stored in these huge boxes. We'll probably fill one with blankets and comforters, but the other? Who knows?

Side note: In the little antique stores around here, I've found many items perfect for my house, including keys that fit several of my doors. I wonder how much of it came out of my house in the first place...