{"product_id":"walter-hinchman-refinished-antique-tool-chest-on-casters-c-1910-1935","title":"Walter Hinchman Refinished Antique Tool Chest on Casters, c. 1910–1935","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThis is Walter Hinchman’s tool chest. He found it, he refinished it, and it is offered here from his own bench under La Rue Tool \u0026amp; Supply Co.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAn antique flat-top chest, banded and riveted in steel over solid timber, fitted inside as a working tool chest and taken to black on red casters. It rolls, it closes true, and it holds a full kit where every piece of it is visible at once.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe carcass is solid wood, bound at every edge and corner in steel strapping set with domed rivets. The corner caps are stamped with a scalloped outline; the lock plate is embossed and carries its keyhole; two spring draw-latches flank it, and a hasp and staple sit centre for a padlock. Heavy wire bail handles hang from pressed steel plates at both ends. The front panel is framed with applied moulding.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe fit-out is the reason to want it. The lid carries two fitted shelves. Below them, a third tier is divided into three compartments and fronted by a sawtooth rail of some eighteen slots, made to stand saw blades upright and apart.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAcross the full width above that runs a sprung steel wire on eye hooks, drawn taut. Screwdrivers, files, chisels, rules — anything with a shaft slides behind it and stays put when the lid swings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eMounted on the face is a stainless twin-channel magnetic bar, marked Küchenprofi of Solingen, which takes wrenches, pliers, drivers and small steel straight off the wood.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe body holds a full-length lift-out till, painted black inside, riding on rails over a deep open well. A chain stays the lid; a swivel catch holds it shut.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eTwo things are going on in this chest, and they are worth separating: what it was made as, and what it has been made into.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe shell is trade-standard American chest construction. A flat top rather than a domed one, solid timber bound in steel strapping at every edge, domed rivets set close along the bands, stamped decorative corner caps, an embossed escutcheon with a keyhole, spring draw-latches either side, and wire bail handles on pressed plates. That combination is the pattern American makers settled on once the domed trunk gave way to the flat top around the turn of the century, and it held through the interwar decades. On that hardware it is offered as c. 1910–1935.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eFlat tops mattered because flat tops stack. A domed trunk is a single object; a flat one is a module, and once goods moved by rail and truck rather than by porter, everything went flat.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe interior is a different story. Saw tills cut into a rail, a sprung wire across the width, graded shelving and a lift-out till are not luggage fittings. They are a joiner’s chest fit-out, and someone put them into this shell to carry a working kit. Whether that happened when the chest was new or later in its life, it was done by hand and it was done to be used.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThat is the older tradition at work here. A tradesman’s chest was a personal object, fitted by its owner to his own tools, and the fitting-out was a piece of craftsmanship in its own right. Saws stood in slots so their teeth touched nothing. Edge tools lay separate. Everything had one place, and a glance at the end of a job told you whether anything had walked off.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eThe Refinish\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe work on this chest is Walter Hinchman’s, done at his own bench in Reno, and it is described here plainly because the authorship is part of what is being offered.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt came out of the find brick red — a hard, unsympathetic red over every surface, inside and out, that flattened the ironwork and buried the timber.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe exterior is now matte black across the wood with gloss black on the banding, the rivets and the hardware. The two sheens are the whole decision: the flat ground absorbs light and the gloss ironwork throws it, so the strapping, the domed rivet heads and the stamped corner caps read as line and shadow rather than as applied metal. The grain of the timber still comes through the black, which is why it reads as a chest rather than as a painted box.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eInside, almost nothing was touched. The original dark surface is there, the scratches and gouges of a working life are there, and the earlier brick red still shows along the edges, in the recesses and behind the tills. The ghost of an oval paper label remains on the underside of the lid, its maker long gone from it. Leaving that alone was the point: the outside has been taken somewhere new, and the inside is exactly as a century of work left it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eFour swivel casters with red wheels were added underneath — the one warm note on an otherwise black object, and a deliberate echo of the red still living in the corners inside. They lift the chest to a working height and let it move loaded, with one hand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThere is an impressed mark in the timber beside the lock plate, now beneath the black. It does not resolve in photographs and no maker is claimed here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n  \u003ctable\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAntique flat-top banded chest fitted as a tool chest, refinished, on casters\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eRefinished by\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eWalter Hinchman, Reno, Nevada, for La Rue Tool \u0026amp; Supply Co\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eConstruction\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eSolid timber bound in steel strapping at every edge and corner with domed rivets; stamped corner caps; embossed lock plate with keyhole; two spring draw-latches; hasp and staple; wire bail handles on pressed steel plates; applied moulding to the front panel\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFit-out\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eLid: two fitted shelves; a third tier in three compartments fronted by a sawtooth rail of some eighteen saw slots; a sprung steel tool wire on eye hooks across the full width; a stainless twin-channel magnetic bar marked Küchenprofi, Solingen. Body: full-length lift-out till on rails over a deep well. Lid stay chain and swivel catch.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFinish\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMatte black on the timber, gloss black on the banding, rivets and hardware. Interior left original, with the earlier brick red showing through at the edges, in the recesses and behind the tills.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCasters\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFour swivel casters with red wheels, added\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAn impressed mark in the timber beside the lock plate, now beneath the refinish and not legible in photographs. The ghost of an oval paper label remains inside the lid. No original maker is identified and the chest is offered unattributed as to manufacture.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eDimensions\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eApproximately 36 in long, approximately 17 in deep, approximately 18 in high, approximately 21 in high on the casters\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1910–1935, on the hardware. The flat top, the riveted steel edge banding, the stamped scalloped corner caps, the embossed escutcheon, the paired spring draw-latches and the wire bail handles on pressed plates are the American pattern that followed the domed trunk from about the turn of the century and held through the interwar decades. The interior tool fit-out is hand work and may be original to the chest or later; it is not dated separately here. The refinish is contemporary and is Walter Hinchman’s.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eStructurally sound and in working order. The carcass is square, the lid closes true, the hinges are solid and the stay chain is intact. Both draw-latches operate and the swivel catch holds. The lock plate is present with its keyhole; no key is supplied and the lock is not represented as working. The refinished exterior is even and complete, with the texture of the original timber and the ironwork reading through it. Inside, the original surfaces are as found and honest: scratches, gouges, dents, paint loss and the marks of long use, with brick red showing at the edges. Some splitting and fibre loss along one interior rail where the wire is anchored. All shelves, the saw rail, the tool wire, the magnetic bar and the lift-out till are present and secure. The casters roll freely and are firmly fixed. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n  \u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\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\u003eThis is the rare object that is furniture and equipment at once, and concedes nothing on either side.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eClosed, it is a long black chest on castors: a low table that swallows what a living room accumulates, a bench at the foot of a bed, a console behind a sofa, a hall seat with boots inside it. Matte black with the ironwork picked out in gloss reads as architecture rather than as brown antique furniture, which is why it sits as easily in a modern room as in an old one.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOpen, it is a fully fitted tool chest most tradespeople would be glad to own. Saws upright and apart, drivers and files behind the wire, wrenches on the magnet, the till for small parts, the well for the heavy things.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThat visibility is the practical argument for a fitted chest over a stack of drawers. A drawer hides its contents and invites you to fill it with things you will never find again. A chest like this shows you everything at once, which is how a kit stays a kit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eThe casters change what it is. A loaded tool chest is a two-person lift; on wheels it is a one-hand push. Roll it to the work, roll it back to the wall, roll it clear when the car comes in.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eIt is not only for tools. The same fit-out takes brushes and art materials, photographic gear, a knife roll and kitchen kit, fishing tackle, model-making, leatherwork, or a guitar tech’s road kit — anything where many small hard objects need one place and fast retrieval.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eAnd it carries an authorship most antiques do not. A century-old trade chest, found and brought back by hand, its outside reconsidered and its inside left untouched. You open it and the original brick red is still sitting in the corners. Very few pieces let you see two lives at once.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOn placement. It wants a floor it can roll on and clearance in front to open, since the lid throws back rather than up. Under a window, against brick or plaster, or at the end of a bench it looks correct.\u003c\/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003eOn care. Wipe the exterior with a dry or barely damp cloth; matte black shows water marks and wants no polish or wax. Leave the interior entirely alone — the original surface and the brick red are the point, and cleaning them back is the one thing that would cost this chest its value. Keep it dry and out of standing damp, and give the caster swivels a drop of oil once a year.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"La Rue Tool \u0026 Supply Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48065497268329,"sku":"VE-1632","price":3125.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/F802B411-A7C7-477A-BEFC-7D63AF8E145D.jpg?v=1789517610","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/walter-hinchman-refinished-antique-tool-chest-on-casters-c-1910-1935","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}