{"product_id":"sears-forecast-avocado-hardside-suitcase-with-keys-c-1968-1975","title":"Sears Forecast Avocado Hardside Suitcase with Keys, c. 1968–1975","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA hardside traveling case in avocado green, from the Sears Forecast line, and an unusually complete one. The shell is a molded frame in a finely pebbled finish, bound at the seam with a bright metal band, with two sprung latches flanking a centered carrying handle on fixed studs. An oval metal badge on the face reads Forecast in script, and a second plate reads Sears.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe interior is lined throughout in a pale celadon fabric woven with a small repeating lozenge figure. The lid carries a padded panel with elasticated pockets across it, and the body holds a hinged divider secured by four sprung metal clips, so the case packs in two levels and the contents stay put. Additional fitted fabric packing bags come with it. The shell interior is finished in the same olive as the outside.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt still has its keys, and they are on the original ring with a vintage 1. FC Koln fob and a small plastic goat. The crest is unmistakable: the Cologne Cathedral in black behind the red and white diagonal. Supporters of the Cologne club have kept a live goat named Hennes as their mascot since 1950, which is what the charm is. Somebody carried this case to or from Cologne and kept the souvenir on the keys, and that is the kind of thing that survives on a used object and never on a new one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSears did not manufacture luggage. It commissioned and badged it, and the patent stamped into this case names the firm that actually built the hardware.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe legible mark reads DES. PAT. 193,234. That number resolves cleanly to United States design patent D193,234, Combined luggage handle, handle studs and locks, filed 23 May 1961 by Charles S. Gehrie of Montclair, New Jersey, and assigned to the Sardis Luggage Company of Sardis, Mississippi. It issued on 10 July 1962.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat date is a hard floor. A patent cannot be cited on a product before it is granted, so this case was built after July 1962, and its handle and lock assembly are Sardis work regardless of whose name is on the badge. Sardis Luggage operated in the Mississippi Delta and supplied cases to the major American retailers through the middle of the century, which is how a Mississippi patent ends up stamped inside a Sears box.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA second patent number appears on the opposite latch. It is too worn to read with confidence and is not transcribed here rather than printed wrong.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe ceiling comes from the color. Avocado green arrived in American consumer goods in the late 1960s and ran hard through the first half of the 1970s before the palette turned. A Sears hardside in that green, on a 1962 patent, sits comfortably between about 1968 and 1975.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRetailer\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSears, Forecast line\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eHardware maker\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSardis Luggage Company, Sardis, Mississippi, by patent attribution\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDate\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1968–1975\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForecast badge and Sears badge to the shell. DES. PAT. 193,234 stamped to the latch plate. A second patent number on the opposite latch is illegible\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterials\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMolded frame with pebbled finish, metal seam binding, metal latches and handle studs, celadon patterned fabric lining\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eInterior\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ePadded lid panel with elasticated pockets, hinged divider on four sprung clips\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eIncluded\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOriginal keys on a vintage 1. FC Koln keychain with goat charm, plus additional fitted fabric packing bags\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eColor\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAvocado green\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTo be confirmed\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eExcellent vintage condition. Shell clean and sound with no cracks, splits or dents, and only light handling marks. Both latches operate crisply and the case locks and unlocks with the keys supplied. Metal binding bright. Lining complete and intact throughout with light age toning. All interior fittings present and working.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHardside cases from this period have had a second life as furniture for twenty years now, and the reason is simple: they stack, they close, and they hide things. Two or three on a landing become a side table. One at the foot of a bed holds spare bedding. On open shelving a single strong color does more work than three neutral objects.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat separates this one from the ones that turn up at every estate sale is that nothing is missing. The badges are there, the latches work, the lining is whole, the packing bags survived, and the keys are still on the ring they came home on with a football club souvenir from Cologne attached. Cases get bought for the color and kept for that kind of detail. For a dealer or a designer dressing a mid-century room, a complete avocado hardside with its own small history is the version worth stocking.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67604686798953,"sku":"VE-1798","price":657.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/01_fc4231ac-55cf-466f-91aa-9c3c0ae6e5dc.jpg?v=1791394446","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/sears-forecast-avocado-hardside-suitcase-with-keys-c-1968-1975","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}