Wouldn't You Like to be a Studley Too...
 

Do you remember Mr Studley?

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I guess Mr Studley didn't have any sons to pass the box too. Hmm, that's not very Studley.

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Well hell's bells look at this.

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I'd guess that bench top has been refinished. ;)

Tools not for using is an interesting issue.

That's a beautiful toolbox full of tools, and of course I would like to have it. But truthfully, I don't really need those tools. Why would you need 5 mortise gauges?

But it would be nice to have those two wood/steel combination planes on the far left. The long joiner and the medium sized jack plane. I love the combination of a wood sole and the metal adjustment mechanism. I probably wouldn't use them much, but would love to have them.

One damn hammer?

Because when you are building an organ, piano, or whatever, and have 3, 4, or 5 dimensions you're using over and over again all day, it's a big time saver. Like using several wrenches instead of one adjustable.

Homemade boxes were common, more for carpenters, cabinet makers, and pattern makers, than other trades but in the mid-sixties I worked with a couple of old machinists who had them. Of course Studley's is just so beautiful and unique. I read when the Smithsonian got it the thing was filthy and some tools were missing. They cleaned it and a couple minor repairs then replaced the missing tools. They knew what was missing because nothing else would fit the pocket. There's only one pocket they couldn't figure out.

Most of the boxes look more like this...
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In Studley's time there was a lot of things you built or paid dearly for.

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Or just did without, as in the 1800s most people never went more than 25 miles from home and didn't need a steamer trunk.

Did anybody else get an olfactory hit when you saw the steamer trunk?

mildew, leather, dust, basement

very light on the mildew though

Thisisnotporn.

Yes it is.

Yeah, notmypersonalporn, but I get it.

:D[/sproing]