Featured Tennessee Cedar Chest [original blue paint/wood castors]

I may keep the chest and clean her up. Soon as I eliminate some of this hoard [eeek] I love the smell of cedar so I'll try

 

Watch out for the h(a)mster stampede when you do.

 

Blanket chests are still very handy around the house & offer good function, even today. If they have drawers at the bottom, even better.

 

My cedar chest/blanket chest holds up my TV and a variety of related electronics. Most useful indeed!

 

I have an escaped Lane that is my Coff...err...tea table.

Why/what did it escape you ask...
Anyone know?

 

I will bite.... what did it escape?

 

These lock automatically and it's said that children climbed in died in them.

 

And that is why the Lane Chests (at least in my lifetime) came with a lock and key.

I "think" that later models than my Lane "hope chest" were designed (required to be as per the government?) so that the lid could be (easily?) released from the inside. Of course if a two- or three-year-old child has been unsupervised I would be surprised if a child that age could even begin to lift the "heavy" lid.

 

Yeah - and by a special law passed by Congress Lane was supposed to contact everyone who had ever purchased one and send them a replacement kit. As if that would or could ever happen. But you can contact them for a replacement and they will send it to you. They may ask for the date of manufacture which is printed/stamped backward somewhere on the chest........usually the bottom.

Sort of ironic that one of Lane's special selling features (self locking to prevent access by critters) should almost be their downfall, neh?

 

Yes. And I bought it at a thrift.
Who would check that?
I only knew because I was looking for value info.

 

I had a locking "incident" with a paint decorated 1769 blanket chest years ago. It arrived as night was falling and i couldn't wait to examine it, already had the lights on a stand out and ready to do battle!
I wanted to look at bottom of chest and lifted it up on it's end and, just as i did i heard this CLICK! WHAT WAS THAT! i wondered, set it down and it had locked itself, BAM!
There was no key, it was an old crab lock so i figured, lift it up on the other end and maybe it will unlock itself? OH HELL NO! not a chance. I fiddled with that lock for 3 or 4 days before i got it open and disabled the lock.

 

Mine still locks but there's little room in it.
And I've not had any children wandering by to visit it.

 

Mine still locks but there's little holes drilled in it.
And I've not had any children wandering by to visit it - but I'm ready if the brats do......................................

 

Typical cedar chest from the first half of the 20th century. IMHO the paint is not original.

 

I'll add one more comment about cedar chest usage (it goes waaay back to the early 1960s when I got my Lane cedar "hope chest").

The "instructions" for my cedar hope chest explicitly said NOT to use or store any "paper(s) or paper items" inside the cedar chest.