Featured I HAVE THIS LOVELY SMALL CHEST THAT I LOVE & WOULD LIKE SOME

Thanks, @say_it_slowly, , it's staying right where it is as long as I'm breathing!!!!

 

It looks, from the puttied-up holes beneath the hinges, like it may have had leather straps around it at one time. That made me think of a traveler's chest, and then the knotted cord handles suggested sea travel. The size and little drawers could simply reflect the intended contents--a small tea service, maybe, a boot blacking kit, or hairdressing necessities (including powder and wig?) It does seem to have been through many changes. A box like this can set you dreaming about its past lives...

 

@2manybooks, I took some close-ups of the becketts .... looks like they are both rope and leather.....the knot, round starburst and round going thru the cleat are definitely leather.....the 'handles' looks to be rope/fiber.....both are somewhat pliable and have been either painted or treated with something dark....not sure it's just age......check it out....for the MOST part, I DO believe they are really old.....just SO NOT SURE about the part that goes thru the cleat!!!!

​

 

Hi and WELCOME!!!! ALL POSSIBLE thoughts!!! Stuff we'll never really know!! My thoughts around the 'patches' outside below the hinges would be that from constantly opening/closing the lid that the nails came loose and needed to be re-set.....Just MY thoughts on it!!! Again, stuff we'll never know!! And I love the ideas that women DID go to sea now and then!!!

 

Very interesting. I had not researched sea chests before, much less beckets (love new artifact terms). It looks like they may have been coated (perhaps repeatedly) with paint and/or linseed oil. A google image search for "antique sea chest beckets" turned up several chests of similar small size, with interior compartments.

Also: http://www.frayedknotarts.com/beckets.html

 

You always paint ropework like this if you use pieces in a marine environment.

 

Agreed!

 

Funny.....now I've seen 'beckets' spelled BOTH ways.....with & without double 't's at the end.....!!! No big deal to me!!!

 

OOOH, I LOVE the idea on a small ditty box if you happen to only have ONE!!!!!!!

 

Those handles are fabulous

 

Yeah, THAT is the problem I see with this "sea chest" business, it LOOKS too good to be correct.
Not that I know anything about it, I do not! And I don't wanna be the killjoy here but, I sense issues with the entire sea chest, pirate chest, treasure chest, etc. thingy.
First off, sailing ships in the 18th - 19th centuries were very SMALL.
They crammed a lot of men on these ships, whether warships, merchant or pirate.
Space is the most precious commodity in that world at that time.
The notion that they had space to store personal wood chests in that environment is pretty far out there. The ship doctor & captain yes, but the men? a canvas duffel bag seems much more likely, I doubt wood chests. It's just not reasonable.
I could be ALL WRONG about this!

 

Love the chest, Aqui. It looks like a sea chest to me, and it never had feet or a bracket base. I have never seen sea chests with feet, I would think feet were much too dainty for something to store rough equipment.
It could be European, maybe even Dutch.

These sea chests were not owned by the men, they were used to store the equipment and materials used to treat the rigging. (I am sure there is an appropriate word for the procedure and materials.) The rope-themed handles are a bit of a giveaway. And yes, the handles are original, no replacement, as was suggested earlier.
Most of these chests didn't need to be big, but they needed to be stable, which accounts for the shape. The till and the drawers were for different tools, brushes, etc.

Love the word becket btw.

 

You lucky girl!

Exactly, household, not sturdy enough for ship's equipment.

 

"The crew on sailing ships typically owned little property—perhaps only what would fit into a chest like this one. Not only did his chest store a sailor’s personal belongings, but it also served as his table, his chair, his bank and his bureau. These chests also gave a sailor an opportunity for personal expression through carvings, paintings, and decorations."

https://americanhistory.si.edu/onthewater/collection/DL_63.828.html

 

Which brings up another important matter, ZERO serious scholarship on these objects, just anecdotal stories.
Another thing I find odd, I see no evidence of water damage on any of these chests and I find that highly unlikely. These guys were not exactly sailing on the Queen Mary 2 in air-conditioned cabins you realize.
Getting back to these stories, here is one I came across that I find odd in many ways. Again, no serious study of this chest below and none likely to be forthcoming as they have it sealed in a glass case. Only a press release on their website and you have to go to their FaceBook page for photographs and, these guys claim to be a museum. OK, I am easy, if you say so.

Museum Acquires Sea Chest of John Claypoole, Husband of Betsy Ross
Just in time for Veterans Day, the wooden sea chest of Revolutionary War veteran John Claypoole, third husband of the famed Betsy Ross, the seamstress and upholsterer who was long-celebrated as the creator of the American flag, is now on display at the Museum of the American Revolution. The Museum acquired the chest from a descendant of Ross and Claypoole. The chest is now installed in the Museum’s “War at Sea” gallery and will remain on permanent display.

Link to entire Press Release.
https://www.amrevmuseum.org/press-r...s-sea-chest-john-claypoole-husband-betsy-ross

The FB Photos

https://www.facebook.com/AmRevMuseu...hn-claypoole-betsy-ross-thir/2541994355887119







Again, I am not trying to rain on anyone's parade here, I am saying I have questions.
I just don't know but, trying to find out.

 

Anything used for the upkeep of the ship was kept in good shape, just like the ship itself. Obviously these sea chests (not seamen's chests) didn't have to be in the water all the time, like the ships did. But they did have to be in good condition to hold the equipment to look after the rigging.

We seem to be talking about two different kinds of chests here. One is the chest of the type Aqui has, which was part of the ship's outfit.
Somehow it got confused with the second type, the much more plain one the sailors had in their possession.

 

It seems the small size of Aquitaine's would suggest it belonged to an individual sailor - a "sea chest" - rather than being used for ship's equipment - a more general purpose "stowage chest".


Left to right - sailor sitting on "ditty" box, sailor sitting on "sea chest". and in background a "stowage" chest, c.1890s.
http://www.thepirateslair.com/authentic-antique-nautical-naval-sea-chests.html


Sailor seated on sea chest, using stowage chest as table for his sewing machine.(same website - he includes other original photos showing mostly stowage chests in use.) He also notes "Finding real authentic sea chests and certainly stowage chests are next to impossible as they have been lost to time and use, especially the stowage chests which were used on weather decks!"

Being small, useful, romantic, and historically "homemade" by a sailor himself, sea chests are probably prime candidates for reproductions/fakes. I came across several websites for wood workers describing plans and methods for making your own.

 

WOW! I NEVER expected this to get THIS involved....was just looking for an age approximation on my little chest, which as I said at the beginning, I DO know IS old....HOW old was my BIG question!!!!

Interesting! Makes one wonder if he was a prisoner of war in two separate prisons (In 1781, his ship was captured off the coast of Ireland by the British ship Enterprise, and Claypoole become a prisoner of war, first in Ireland and then at the notorious Old Mill Prison in Plymouth England.) how his sea chest managed to follow him back to America!!! Not doubting, just curious!!

 

@2manybooks, great pics, although more modern than we are talking about, but giving samples....great link....now to go check them out!!!!!

Liked this part!:
"All sea chests and stowage chests had wooden cleats on both ends to hold rope beckets", (sometimes the smaller sailors sea chests just hand wrought iron handles) which were used to lift and haul the sea chests around the deck. All chests also had flat bottoms, some had skirts and some did not, to easily move them on deck. Many of these chests had the classic slanted sides where the bottom of the chest was wider than the top to help keep a low center of gravity on a pitching and rolling deck."

 

Yes, I see that but I thought we were discussing sailing ships made of wood & sail not iron/steel steam-powered ships, totally different era on those photographs.
Matter of fact, there weren't any photographs in that era, paintings though maybe?