What is the difference between a trunk and a chest?

In practice, very little. "Trunk" appears in roughly half the titles in this category and "chest" in the other half, and dealers apply them to the same object. Scale shifts the word rather than the form. The smallest are called caskets or boxes, the heavier iron-bound examples coffers, and a few chests for valuables are called strong boxes.

Which woods were used for colonial chests?

Teak leads, named in about a quarter of titles, with camphor wood next and a plain "hardwood" description behind that. Beyond those three the timbers are unusually varied for one category. Padouk, walnut, satinwood, rosewood, mahogany, elm, oak, larchwood, sandalwood, palisander and ebony all appear in the samples.

How old are colonial chests?

Dating here tends to be a century rather than a year. Forty-eight of the 109 listings say only "19th Century" and nine say only "18th Century". Only 34 carry a clean year, spread thinly from the 1750s to the 1910s. A handful are given as Victorian or Edwardian instead, and three sampled pieces reach back to the 17th century.

Are Zanzibar chests part of this category?

Yes. Zanzibar chests are named in five titles, one of them described as African outright, which makes it the most distinctive single origin term after India. They belong with the iron-bound and studded coffers, a group that accounts for roughly a tenth of the category.

What does a campaign chest mean in these listings?

It means the piece was made to travel with an officer or official abroad, where furniture moved with its owner. The word appears in a sixth of titles. The group covers officers' travelling trunks, a military teak trunk, gentleman's travelling chests and miniature campaign trunks. One campaign piece in the samples is a cellarette rather than a trunk.

Are colonial chests marked with a maker's name?

Not in this category. A scan of the dealer descriptions for maker, workshop and retailer names returned nothing at all. What listings identify instead is origin and timber: Indian, Anglo-Indian, Dutch colonial, Spanish, Portuguese, Ceylonese, and the wood the chest is built from.

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Antique Colonial Chests

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A lidded hardwood storage box made in or for the colonial trade, strapped in brass or iron and fitted with carrying handles, built so that possessions could survive a sea voyage.