What Is a Hope Chest?
Along with the dressing table and vanity, a hope chest is a piece of furniture designed solely with women in mind. Throughout history young women have prepared for marriage by making and collecting clothing and linens and storing them in what came to be known as hope chests. Although the tradition has lost favor in recent years, many young women have been handed down treasured hope chests as heirlooms and use them as furniture accents in their homes. Does this Spark an idea?
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Definition
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A hope chest is a trunk-shaped piece of furniture, sometimes on legs, normally built from a variety of woods such as cherry, oak, or rosewood, and often cedar-lined. Hope chests traditionally were given to a young woman by her parents, sometimes as a sixteenth birthday gift, with the intention that the teenager begin to prepare for marriage by embroidering linens, stitching quilts and making other items she would keep in the hope chest and take with her when she married.
Function
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Before her wedding, a young girl traditionally used her hope chest to store linens and other items she was collecting to set up her household after her marriage. After that, many brides continued to use the hope chest to keep valuables, especially her best pieces of clothing, including her wedding dress. Perfumed sachets were often slipped into the hope chest, but later many manufacturers lined the chests with cedar, which produced a fresh smell and protected the contents from bugs, fungus and dampness. These cedar-lined hope chests still continue to be used for such purposes as storing out-of-season clothing or linens in a guest room.
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History
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The idea of hope chests stems from the ancient dowry tradition in which the bride's father was expected to hand over his daughter in marriage along with gold, property or other tangible gifts. That idea evolved into the bride herself collecting and creating household items before her wedding. In many families, fathers built their daughters hope chests, individualizing each creation. Later, manufactured steamer trunks were often used as hope chests. By the early 1900s, furniture manufacturers created pieces specifically designated as hope chests.
The Lane Company
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The largest manufacturer of hope chests for nearly 100 years was the Lane Company of Virginia. Advertising their product as "the gift that starts the home," Lane began manufacturing hope chests in the 1920s, creating a variety of designs that evolved according to home decorating trends throughout the years; for example, in the 1950s when blond furniture was popular, a cedar-line blond hope chest became available through Lane. The company continued to produce hope chests until 2001.
Purchasing Cedar Chests
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Today it is still possible to purchase hope chests. One route is to look for older ones at flea markets, antique stores, and on on-line auction sites, where dozens are advertised on any given day. However, many manufacturers continue to produce hope chests in a variety of styles, including traditional cedar-lined varieties and sleek, modern designs.
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