Intricate designs; typically the most decorated in the home during the prime time of the hope chest.Girl inspecting her hope chest, by Poul Friis Nybo, c. 1900Renaissance hope chest (cassone) from Florence (15th century)
A hope chest, also called dowry chest, cedar chest, trousseau chest, or glory box, is a piece of furniture once commonly used by unmarried young women to collect items, such as clothing and household linen, in anticipation of married life.
The term 'hope chest' or 'cedar chest' is used in the United States; in the United Kingdom, the term is 'bottom drawer'; while both terms and 'glory box' are used by women in Australia.[1][2] Today, some furniture makers refer to hope chests as chests made to hold family heirlooms or general storage items.[citation needed]
By contrast, a "bridal chest" was given to a bride at her wedding by her husband, and so is not a "hope chest" in this regard.
Function
A trousseau was a common coming-of-age rite until approximately the 1950s; it was typically a step on the road to marriage between courting a man and engagement.[citation needed] It wasn't always collected in a special chest, hence the alternative UK term bottom drawer, which refers to putting aside one drawer in a chest of drawers for collecting the trousseau undisturbed, but such a chest was an acceptable gift for a girl approaching a marriageable age.[3]
Contents of a 'hope chest' or 'glory box' included common dowry items such as clothing, table linens, towels, bed linens, quilts and occasionally dishware. The hope chest was often used for the firstborn girl of a family.[citation needed] Instead of only containing sheets and household linen in the bottom drawer, their chest would transport these goods and dowries, and later be used as a standard piece of furniture for the lady of the house to use. This dowry chest was often richly decorated, however over time dowry chests gradually became smaller, with jewelry boxes emerging instead of large dowry boxes.[citation needed]
Since brides often leave home upon marriage, some hope chests were made with portability in mind. The National Museum of Australia displayed a prospective bride's trousseau that was hand-made between 1916 and 1918.[4][citation needed] In this case, the trousseau— never used because the bride's fiancé was killed in World War I before the marriage took place — was stored in calico bags rather than in a chest.
Aussteuerschrank - a dowry closet, currently in a German museum.
A large, Italian type of chest that was used in dynastic marriages in 15th and 16th century Italy. The cassone was associated with displays of wealth and luxury, serving as a prized possession among wealthy merchants and aristocrats. It was often inlaid or carved, prepared with gesso ground then painted and gilded.[5]
Dutch Kast or German Schrank
Kasts and schranks were tall, wardrobe-like chests with double doors, and larger than most hope chests. They were intended for regular service in the home after marriage and constructed with the ability to be dismantled for transport..[6][7][8]
American settlers
The hope chest as an expression of folk art came with the waves of European immigrants to America. Immigrants from Scandinavia settled in the Northern Midwest, while Germans arrived in Pennsylvania. The Amish had traditions of constructing simple chests with extensive painted decoration.[citation needed]
Arabic origins
In the Middle East, similar chests were known as "dower chests." The Cairo Genizah documents, which contain nearly 400,000 texts, provide insight into daily life in Egypt from the 6th to the 19th centuries. Numerous marriage contracts from the Genizah refer to dower chests, with two types used: muqaddimah[9], for the bride’s personal possessions, and sunduq, commonly in matching pairs for other goods. These chests were generally not elaborately decorated, except in the case of the ruling class.[10][citation needed]
Decoration
Decoration is not an intrinsic part of the hope chest, but often appears.
Carving
This was notable in the 17th and 18th century joined oak chests. The Hadley chests of Massachusetts are covered by extensive surface carving in the typical low-relief style of the period.[citation needed]
Engraving
Engraving is one way of decorating hope chests or cedar chests. It is common to add engravings to personalize your chests or make them unique, particularly in the Amish communities.[11]
Painting
This is typically seen in the Scandinavian and German immigrant traditions and follows traditional styles. In many Arab countries, they are still referred to as "sanduq ‘arus", or “wedding box,” although modern trends have them made of metal rather than wood, and looking more like a footlocker. They are elaborately painted, often with a mosque dome or architectural design on the lid, with the color red predominating.[citation needed]
The elaborate gilded gesso of the cassoni was produced by skilled and expensive craftsmen. This work has not been seen since, and doesn't form part of the folk tradition.[citation needed]
Sulfur inlay is a rare technique in furniture and for chests it is only known for a short period. Between 1765 and around 1820, German immigrant cabinetmakers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, used it to decorate the surface of chests. The Deitrich chest of 1783 is now in the Smithsonian.[6]
Suffocation hazard to children
There have been several instances of child deaths due to suffocation inside hope chests, due to the piece's traditional design which can trap children under a heavy and sometimes self-locking lid.[12] In 1996, following reports of at least six child suffocation deaths, the manufacturer Lane Furniture recalled 12 million hope chests, the lids of which latched shut automatically, and could not be opened from the inside. Specifically, the recall applied to the locks of all "Lane" and "Virginia Maid" cedar chests manufactured between 1912 and 1987. As part of the recall, they provide new lock latch configuration replacement parts. However, they estimated that 6 million chests still used the recalled lock latch. As of 2023 this recall is no longer available, and owners are encouraged to permanently remove the latch and lock.[13]
Lane Company chests
The Lane Company of Altavista, Virginia (active 1912-2001)[14] was a notable maker of cedar chests. After developing production-line techniques for making ammunition boxes during World War I, they turned these production techniques (and a patented locking-mitre corner joint) into vast numbers of chests. This was aided by strong advertising, using a teenage Shirley Temple as a model, in a campaign targeted at GIs and absentee sweethearts of World War II. [citation needed]They were particularly well known for their practice (since 1930) of distributing miniature (9" long) cedar chests to girls graduating from high-school (known as the Girl Graduate Plan) as advertising gifts.[6][15]
↑ Kingston, Beverley (1977). My Wife, My Daughter and Poor Mary Ann – Women and Work in Australia. Melbourne: Nelson. p.102. ISBN0-17-005212-5. "By the turn of the [20th] century the trousseau and the glory-box had become accepted institutions for the readers of the weekly and monthly women's magazines."
↑ The "muqaddimah" means "first", and possibly refers to the fact that it was carried by the lead donkey in the traditional bridal procession to the groom's home.
↑ "The Art of the Dowery Chest." by Caroline Stone. Aramco World. Volume 66, (8). November–December 2015. [ISSN]: 1530-5821. Page 27.
↑ Lauren Sellers (7 February 2008). "Boy dies in hope chest". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on 13 January 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2014.
The dictionary definition of hope chest at Wiktionary
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