Why are so many of these made of camphor wood?

Camphor is aromatic and repels insects, so it suits the storage of textiles. That is why chests of this kind were built from it, solid or as a lining. Its hold on the category is near total: 102 of 166 listings name camphor wood in the title.

What's the difference between a trunk, a chest and a blanket box?

Often nothing. The same object is listed as a trunk, a chest, a storage box or a blanket box depending on the dealer, and a few are offered as coffee tables. The counts show how unsettled the naming is: trunk in 82 titles, box in 38, blanket in 19, storage in 10.

How old are Chinese camphor chests usually?

Dealer-supplied dates run from 1800 to 1930. Precisely dated pieces cluster in the early twentieth century, with 37 in the 1920s, 25 in the 1900s and 15 in the 1910s. A quarter of the category is dated only to "19th Century", 44 listings in all. Eighteenth-century attributions number just six, and one title carries a carved date that disagrees with the dealer's date field.

Are leather or pigskin covered chests common?

About one in ten of the category is covered in skin of some kind, leather being named in 17 titles. The more unusual coverings almost never repeat. Parchment, red vellum, embossed leather and black-lacquered pigskin each appear on a single trunk.

Do these chests carry maker's names?

Effectively not. No workshop or firm names run through the category, and the only signature-like text across the whole sample is one trunk marked with a name and one described simply as signed. Origin labels stand in instead: export in 24 titles, against Canton or Cantonese in three and Hong Kong in one.

Were they made as marriage or dowry chests?

Some are sold that way, but it is a minority label. Only four titles in the whole sample invoke the marriage, wedding or dowry tradition. The great bulk are described as storage or travelling pieces, and the export and campaign trunks were made for shipboard use.