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Details of object number: 0432
Object name:wardrobe trunk
Description:This is a large wardrobe trunk with six drawers on the inside left, and five wooden clothes hangers on two extendable rails on the inside right. The outside of the case is reinforced along the edges with riveted leather strips, while the corners are further reinforced with metal. The remains of suitcase stickers and handwritten address labels, some applied on top of each other, are affixed in various places: the location description “Montagna – Egna – Alto Adige – Süd Tirol” can be deciphered on one of the latter.
According to verbal information provided by Frau Müller, the museum’s founder, the Museum of Everyday Culture was given the wardrobe trunk by a lender in Montan/Montagna. Originally, however, the suitcase probably came from a Viennese household in which a woman from Montan had once worked.
According to verbal information provided by Frau Müller, the museum’s founder, the Museum of Everyday Culture was given the wardrobe trunk by a lender in Montan/Montagna. Originally, however, the suitcase probably came from a Viennese household in which a woman from Montan had once worked.
Hist. crit. notes:The period from 1900 until the outbreak of the First World War is considered as the first golden age of tourism in South Tyrol. Centres such as Meran/o, Gries/San Quirino (a district of Bozen) and the Dolomites all soon established themselves as internationally renowned tourist destinations. The “foreigners” who came to South Tyrol brought with them new ideas, new fashions and foreign customs, which contributed to the opening up of the local society and brought the land into the modern age.
People travelling in those days would also take along oversized pieces of luggage and were correspondingly dependent on a certain number of porters. The wardrobe trunk, by then a tried-and-tested design, came about as a result of the train replacing the coach as a means of transport. Heavy coach trunks, designed to be transported externally, disappeared and were replaced by stackable suitcase trunks that could be carried in the baggage van. This did not make travelling any more comfortable, however. But that was not the point: travellers also wanted an opportunity to show off. Travelling with large pieces of luggage was a matter for celebration; items of luggage were used for as long as possible and even passed down through the generations. This was the only way to keep the luggage stickers visible: unlike today’s entry stamps in passports, such stickers were a far more effective way of flaunting the urbane nature of the well-travelled.
Travelling was seen as part and parcel of moving in upper-class circles, with large wardrobe trunks representing the possessions, idiosyncrasies and personalities of their owners. Thus Marlene Dietrich, who rose to fame as a film diva in the 1920s, travelled with up to 80 hatboxes and “elephants”, as she used to call her wardrobe trunks.
Such luggage is light years away from today’s carry-on suitcases, now a common sight and an expression of fast-moving, flexible travelling.
People travelling in those days would also take along oversized pieces of luggage and were correspondingly dependent on a certain number of porters. The wardrobe trunk, by then a tried-and-tested design, came about as a result of the train replacing the coach as a means of transport. Heavy coach trunks, designed to be transported externally, disappeared and were replaced by stackable suitcase trunks that could be carried in the baggage van. This did not make travelling any more comfortable, however. But that was not the point: travellers also wanted an opportunity to show off. Travelling with large pieces of luggage was a matter for celebration; items of luggage were used for as long as possible and even passed down through the generations. This was the only way to keep the luggage stickers visible: unlike today’s entry stamps in passports, such stickers were a far more effective way of flaunting the urbane nature of the well-travelled.
Travelling was seen as part and parcel of moving in upper-class circles, with large wardrobe trunks representing the possessions, idiosyncrasies and personalities of their owners. Thus Marlene Dietrich, who rose to fame as a film diva in the 1920s, travelled with up to 80 hatboxes and “elephants”, as she used to call her wardrobe trunks.
Such luggage is light years away from today’s carry-on suitcases, now a common sight and an expression of fast-moving, flexible travelling.
Material:Vulkanfiber
Eisen
Eisen
Dimensions:
- length: 104 cm
width: 54 cm
depth: 53 cm
Physical description:Vulkanfiber und ist Innen mit Papiertapeten und Schnürlsamt (Cordsamt) ausgekleidet; Eisenverstärkung an den Ecken
Institution:Museum of Popular Culture
Inscription:Position: Oberseite ober den Schubfächern
Content: Genuine Volcanized Hardfibre
Content: Genuine Volcanized Hardfibre