ANTIQUE WOODWORKER'S TOOL CHEST c. 1900

 

About 1975, when I was a collector of antique early American tools, I found an extraordinary tool chest of woodworking tools in an antique shop on Ventura Blvd. in Studio City California.

Patent dates on the tools ranged from the 1880s to the 1920s. Many of the tools were marked with the owners initials, H.K., so they became an imaginary Henry Kaufman’s tool chest.

Over the next few years I added a few age appropriate items to the chest, and when I left the corporate world in 1992, I began using those tools on a daily basis to craft my 'cowboy chic' furniture. 

In time they became old friends.

I quit building furniture over 20 years ago in 2002, and finally sold the chest a decade ago.

I stumbled onto these photos yesterday, so I decided to share them with you. Maybe tool collecting will become fashionable again in the future.

I sure had some high times building cowboy folk art furniture in the 1990s.

See: https://a-drifting-cowboy.blogspot.com/2021/04/cowboy-chic-funiture-by-lure-of-dim.html

Happy Trails

EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE A TREASURE CHEST!

 

When I was a small boy my mom would sometimes share a look into her cedar chest. 

The chest was originally built by my grandfather about 1935, and presented to my mom upon her engagement to dad. 

Granddad had completed a Joiner's apprenticeship in London England before immigrating to the USA, so his dovetails were amazing.

Mom's cedar chest was filled with trinkets and treasures... photos, autograph books, costume jewelry, souvenirs and post cards, hankies, a wedding dress, newspaper clippings, and a sock full of silver dollars, etc.

Years, after mom crossed over the Great Divide it became my treasure chest, so I filled it with cowboy treasures… spurs, holsters, belts, buckles, chinks, stampede strings, owl feathers, etc. 

Now, last year, it came full circle when I passed it on to my son Michael.