Can someone identify this for me?

Hey everyone, my stepfather died recently and he was a bit of a “junker” and I am trying to get through some of his stuff. I came across these 2 items and I wasn’t sure what they were. I was told by one person that they might be used for canning and by another person that they might be old lunch pails.

 

My pic isn’t loading. Bear with me.

 

Maybe this will help:
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/posting-a-thread-and-uploading-pictures.15990/

Be sure to keep each image UNDER 1 mb!!

 

Size and what is inside.

 

Inside has a few stainless steel pans that fit into each other. I would guess they are close to 18 inches tall. Maybe taller?

 

If it’s a lunch pail, it would be very large.

 

Vintage catering container. Could be for troops in the field, railway, workers, etc.

Ancient version of this

 

Ah yes. That makes sense. I can see it being that! Thank you! Are they worth anything?

 

Welcome, Cmore79. I have one of these - mine is a WWII food carrier, see link below posted here in the Military forum. They also carried blood but were usually marked on the outside as such.

There is info online, not a lot though, and they sell on ohbay fairly quickly. I've never seen any with ribs like yours though so you may get even more (except yours are rusty so maybe not much more? I have no clue, really). Don't paint or clean up though - leave as is and sell that way. Let the buyer do whatever they want with it.

I've yet to sell mine, they are heavy as heck and I don't want to mail. And I don't want to get ripped off either (beware, ppal will always side with the buyer) so still undecided what to do with it. They can go for hundreds to the right person.
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/sv135-wwii-army-nesco-mermite-food-carrier-complete.33171/

 

Here's a photo of soldiers using both my type of carrier and its pans and the one Terry posted. My pans are the flatter kind.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

Anyone know what the wooden red thing is in the center of the pic?

 

maybe you should start a new thread for that...

 

I’m sorry I didn’t realize that I should have started a new thread. I know nothing about forum etiquette!

 

Not a problem. I've only been here a couple months and still don't know half of it. And have no clue what the red thing is (is wheel part of it?) but you'll most likely need to pull it out, take more photos, look for mfg info and dates and photograph those too. Give the forum every angle and piece of info you can and answers often come more quickly.

 

I started a new thread about it.

 

etiquette...shmedicate.....
a new thread is just better because it starts the process and gets fresh eyes on your item.

 

Quick learner..!!