Meet Me On The Corner

I blipped a picture of this antique trunk, which belonged to Mrs C’s grandfather, at the end of November, when I mentioned that we had given all the leatherwork a good feed, and the only thing left to do was source a replacement for the missing corner cap. As chance would have it, a friend of mine who is a superb metalwork fabricator expressed an interest in a job lot of books I was selling. I suggested a trade - make me a new corner cap and knock off the cost of the books from his bill. I have asked him about doing this previously, but he is usually snowed under with work. This time he said he’d have a go, so I gave him the original I removed last year to act as a template.
And 24 hours later he was back with a newly fabricated - and part aged - cap. He should have been working away today, but plans changed so he set to and made the piece you see on the right. Interestingly, the metalwork on the trunk is not brass as we originally assumed - it’s steel that has been coated and lacquered to give a brass effect.
The one I took off to use as a template, I’m going to re-attach to the front as it’s in full view. The new one can go on the back corner where it’s not as visible. I will put some lacquer on it first and hope that it “yellows” over time. Dan has even managed to find some nails of roughly the right size that he has also “aged”.
This trunk is now well over 100 years old and, whilst it may not be criss-crossing the Atlantic on White Star steamers any more, it is still in great condition (actually, even better now than it was when we found it!) and enjoying its new function as a decorative piece of furniture.