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WOW! Your store is MAGNIFICENT and a lot of love went into your display work. Nice job! We'll be back and further look into getting some pieces. - Bob & Linda Hudson, Southington, CT

William Austin Antiques carries a wide selection of trunks of all styles and makes.

We deliver in New England from Maine to Washington DC and we ship via Atlas, Mayflower, United, North American and others all over the continental USA.

Here at Austin Antiques we Refinish, Repair and Restore trunks, on the inside and the outside. Give us a call today at our toll free number 877.447.5268 or at 802.875.3032 with all your new trunk needs or trunk restoration, repair and refinishing needs and questions.

Pick-up and delivery for restoration & refinishing projects is free in New England and the northeast. Packing and shipping is available throughout the US.

Trunks have been around for thousands of years...Most societies have used trunks, in one form or another since the beginning of history. They were not always referred to as trunks, but they still served the same purpose. Chests, boxes, bins, portmanteaus, were all essentially trunks by another name.

The materials used for construction were: wood, leather, cloth, metal, paper and wicker. The first trunks were just containers made from the hollowed out trunk of a tree or log. Of course the Egyptians had trunks made from stone but they are more properly called sarcophagi, used in entombment.

Trunks were entirely handmade until the early 19th century and the dawn of the industrial revolution. Bit by bit several parts of trunks came to be made by machine. ...

By the mid 19th century, there was virtually nothing on a trunk that was not made by machine. The trunk itself was still being put together mostly by hand but even that was changing with the coming of nailing machines and presses. The last half of the 19th century saw a huge increase in the production of every style of trunk. According to the US Patent Office, in 1860 the total value of trunks produced in the United States was $2,800,000. By 1880 that figure had grown to exceed $7,000,000. The turn of the century saw the introduction of wardrobe style trunks. These huge pieces with their many drawers and hanger compartment, were designed to act as mini bureaus and closets during long sea passages or on summer trips made to the country by "rusticators". Later in the early part of the 20th century, trunk styles changed even more. As transportation changed form railroads and ships to airplanes and automobiles, the era of the trunk slowly came to an end. ('Antique Trunks, Identification and Price Guide' by Linda Edelstein and Paul Pat Morse)