Any ideas on patent info?

[lindyburk]

I recently purchased an old trunk from an antique dealer who didn't know much about it- she said she was told it was an old trunk from the Civil War Era, and that was based on the Patent numbers on the latch. The latch reads "PATENTS May.54 Feb.67 May.68 Nov.70"

Can anyone give me some direction as to where I can verify the authenticity or find out more of a story behind this? It's a time-capsule gift (not to be buried of course!) for my best friend's new baby so it would be neat to give a little history with it- THANKS for anyone's help or advice! :-)

 

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[PBK]

According to the U.S. Patent Office, "Patents from 1790 through 1975 are searchable only by Issue Date, Patent Number, and Current U.S. Classification." Without the exact number or a dead-on classification attribution, that means you'd have to pull up hundreds of patent document image files one at a time and compare the trunk lock (or whatever) to the drawings. Hey, hours of fun! If you're up for it, here's a link to page that will give you the patent number ranges for the years stamped on the latch:

http://www.drexelantiques.com/patent.html

Once you've got a starting number, here's the Patent Office search page:

http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/srchnum.htm

 

[lindyburk]

Wow, that was very helpful- I followed your links and it's pretty easy to conclude that I would never be able to find that patent. Just from your visual inspection of my pictures and that ifo on the latch, would you say it's safe to say it's a civil war trunk from between 1860-1870? Thanks so much! I appreciate your time

 

[FandHPhoto]

Can I ask what you paid for this?

I have 2 old chests I was able to get a date on one from the late 1800 out of Stanford or Stamford Ct I picked one up at a garage sale for less then 10$ and the other at a church sale for 20.00.. I love them they are my oldest pieces of furniture and I go nuts when my kids try and sit on them...

 

[PBK]

Wow, that was very helpful- I followed your links and it's pretty easy to conclude that I would never be able to find that patent. Just from your visual inspection of my pictures and that ifo on the latch, would you say it's safe to say it's a civil war trunk from between 1860-1870? Thanks so much! I appreciate your time

Well, of course it can't date earlier than 1870; otherwise, it wouldn't have that patent listed on the latch. So, c. 1870-80 is probably about right. Unfortunately, I'm not an expert on antique trunks (or much of anything else), but you might be able to get the answers you're after at This Old Trunk:

http://www.thisoldtrunk.com/contactus/index.html

By the way, my apologies for not welcoming you to TreasureNet in my previous post. It's a pleasure to have you join us, and I think you're going to like it here!

All the best,
PBK