{{Short description|Box to collect items for married life}} {{Other uses}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2026}} thumb|Intricate designs; typically the most decorated in the home during the prime time of the hope chest. thumb|Girl inspecting her hope chest, by Poul Friis Nybo, c. 1900 [[File:Arca de la Batalla de Anghiari (M.A.N. 51936) 01.jpg|thumb|Renaissance hope chest (''cassone'') from Florence (15th century)]]
A '''hope chest''', also called '''dowry chest''', '''cedar chest''', '''trousseau chest''', or '''glory box,''' is a piece of furniture once commonly used by unmarried young women to collect items, such as clothing and household linen, in anticipation of married life.
The term 'hope chest' or 'cedar chest' is used in the United States; in the United Kingdom, the term is 'bottom drawer'; while both terms and 'glory box' are used by women in Australia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/features/word/search/?word=glory+box&search_word_type=Dictionary|title = Macquarie Dictionary}}</ref><ref name="Kingston">{{cite book|last=Kingston|first=Beverley|title=My Wife, My Daughter and Poor Mary Ann – Women and Work in Australia |publisher=Nelson |year=1977 |isbn=0-17-005212-5 |location=Melbourne |pages=102 |author-link=Beverley Kingston}} "By the turn of the [20th] century the trousseau and the glory-box had become accepted institutions for the readers of the weekly and monthly women's magazines."</ref> Today, some furniture makers refer to hope chests as chests made to hold family heirlooms or general storage items.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Neilson |first=Leighann |last2=Barkel |first2=Erin |date=2020-09-30 |title=“The gift that starts a home”: marketing of the hope chest in the USA |url=http://www.emerald.com/jhrm/article/12/4/473-502/213378 |journal=Journal of Historical Research in Marketing |language=en |volume=12 |issue=4 |page= |pages=13-15 |doi=10.1108/JHRM-03-2020-0015 |issn=1755-750X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
By contrast, a '''bridal chest''' was given to a bride at her wedding by her husband, and so is not a "hope chest" in this regard.
== Function == A ''trousseau'' was a common coming-of-age rite until approximately the 1950s; it was typically a step on the road to marriage between courting a man and engagement.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Otto |first=Herbert A. |last2=Andersen |first2=Robert B. |date=1967 |title=The Hope Chest and Dowry: American Custom? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/581576 |journal=The Family Life Coordinator |volume=16 |issue=1/2 |pages=15–19 |doi=10.2307/581576 |issn=0886-0394|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It wasn't always collected in a special chest, hence the alternative UK term ''bottom drawer'', which refers to putting aside one drawer in a chest of drawers for collecting the trousseau undisturbed, but such a chest was an acceptable gift for a girl approaching a marriageable age.<ref name=":3" />
Contents of a 'hope chest' or 'glory box' included common dowry items such as clothing, table linens, towels, bed linens, quilts and occasionally dishware. The hope chest was often used for the firstborn girl of a family.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} Instead of only containing sheets and household linen in the bottom drawer, their chest would transport these goods and dowries, and later be used as a standard piece of furniture for the lady of the house to use. This dowry chest was often richly decorated,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fraser |first=Ester Stevens |date=1925 |title=Pennsylvania German Painted Chests |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3793869 |journal=Bulletin of the Pennsylvania Museum |volume=21 |issue=97 |pages=27–34 |doi=10.2307/3793869 |issn=0891-3609|url-access=subscription }}</ref> however over time dowry chests gradually became smaller, with jewelry boxes emerging instead of large dowry boxes.{{Citation needed|reason=current source link is broken|date=March 2025}}
Since brides often leave home upon marriage, some hope chests were made with portability in mind. The National Museum of Australia displayed a prospective bride's trousseau that was hand-made between 1916 and 1918.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cotton nightdress made by Muriel McPhee |url=http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/australian_journeys/gallery_highlights?result_6095_result_page=4 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161123134152/http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/australian_journeys/gallery_highlights?result_6095_result_page=4 |archive-date=23 November 2016 |access-date=22 February 2012 |publisher=National Museum of Australia}}</ref>{{Citation needed|reason=current source link is broken|date=March 2025}} In this case, the trousseau— never used because the bride's fiancé was killed in World War I before the marriage took place — was stored in calico bags rather than in a chest.
== Historical origins ==
thumb|Italian – "Cassone" – Walters 6535 * Cassone of renaissance Italy thumb|''Aussteuerschrank'' – a dowry closet, currently in a German museum. : A large, Italian type of chest that was used in dynastic marriages in 15th and 16th century Italy. The cassone was associated with displays of wealth and luxury, serving as a prized possession among wealthy merchants and aristocrats.<ref name=":0">{{Citation |title=Cassone |date=c. 1425 |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/459250 |access-date=7 March 2025 |archive-date=21 August 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250821233152/https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/459250 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* Dutch Kast or German Schrank : Kasts and schranks were tall, wardrobe-like chests with double doors, and larger than most hope chests. They were intended for regular service in the home after marriage and constructed with the ability to be dismantled for transport.<ref name="Schleining, Treasure Chests" >{{cite book |title=Treasure Chests: The Legacy of Extraordinary Boxes |last= Schleining |first= Lon |isbn=1-56158-651-X |publisher=Taunton Press |year=2003 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kOHS2418gQYC }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Kast (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/kast.htm |access-date=7 March 2025 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |title=Kast |date=1650–1700 |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/4593 |access-date=7 March 2025}}</ref>
* American settlers : The hope chest as an expression of folk art came with the waves of European immigrants to America. Immigrants from Scandinavia settled in the Northern Midwest, while Germans arrived in Pennsylvania. The Amish had traditions of constructing simple chests with extensive painted decoration.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}
* Arabic origins : In the Middle East, similar chests were known as "dower chests." The Cairo Genizah documents, which contain nearly 400,000 texts, provide insight into daily life in Egypt from the 6th to the 19th centuries. Numerous marriage contracts from the Genizah refer to dower chests, with two types used: muqaddimah,<ref>The "muqaddimah" means "first", and possibly refers to the fact that it was carried by the lead donkey in the traditional bridal procession to the groom's home.</ref> for the bride’s personal possessions, and sunduq, commonly in matching pairs for other goods. These chests were generally not elaborately decorated, except in the case of the ruling class.<ref>[http://www.aramcoworld.com/en-US/Articles/November-2015/The-Art-of-the-Dowry-Chest "The Art of the Dowery Chest."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181231133905/http://www.aramcoworld.com/en-US/Articles/November-2015/The-Art-of-the-Dowry-Chest |date=31 December 2018 }} by Caroline Stone. Aramco World. Volume 66, (8). November–December 2015. [ISSN]: 1530-5821. Page 27.</ref>{{Citation needed|reason=previous source link is broken|date=March 2025}}
== Decoration == While not an essential to the function of a hope chest, different forms of decoration have historically appeared in many styles.{{Citation needed|date=December 2023}}
=== Carving === Carving was a notable technique in joined oak chests during the 17th and 18th century. The Hadley chests of Massachusetts were covered by surface carvings in the typical low-relief style of the period.<ref>{{Cite web |date=14 August 2015 |title=Hadley Chest; Dower Chest; Chest With Drawer |url=https://artmuseum.mtholyoke.edu/object/hadley-chest-dower-chest-chest-drawer |access-date=9 March 2025 |website=Mount Holyoke College Art Museum |language=en |archive-date=21 January 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250121022341/https://artmuseum.mtholyoke.edu/object/hadley-chest-dower-chest-chest-drawer |url-status=live }}</ref>
=== Engraving === Engraving is another way of decorating hope chests or cedar chests. It is common to add engravings to personalize chests or make them unique, particularly within Amish communities.<ref>[https://amishhandcrafted.com/custom-wood-chest-features/#Engraved_Front_Designs Custom Wood Chest Features] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220107151725/https://amishhandcrafted.com/custom-wood-chest-features/#Engraved_Front_Designs |date=7 January 2022 }}. AmishHandcrafted.com. Retrieved 4 February 2022.</ref>
=== Painting === Painting has traditionally been used in Scandinavian and German hope chests, and follows traditional styles. Modern Arab hope chests are made of metal rather than wood, with closer resemblance to a footlocker. They are painted predominantly red, often with a mosque dome or architectural design on the lid.{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}
=== Gesso === {{Main|Gesso}}
The gilded gesso of the cassoni was produced by craftsmen, although it is not as common now.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}} It was often inlaid or carved, prepared with gesso ground then painted and gilded.<ref name=":0" />
=== Sulfur inlay === {{Main|Sulfur inlay}}
Sulfur inlay was a decorative technique used in making furniture and chests during a short period of time. Between 1765 and 1820, German immigrant cabinetmakers in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, used it to decorate the surface of chests. An example is the Deitrich chest of 1783, which is now at the Smithsonian.<ref name="Schleining, Treasure Chests" />[[File:Lane Cedar Chests - Debbie Reynolds agrees, 1954.jpg|thumb|1954 advertisement with Debbie Reynolds]]
== Lane Furniture == thumb|Lane Girl Graduate Plan Chest The Lane Furniture Company of Altavista, Virginia (active 1912–2022) was a notable maker of cedar chests.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Lane Cedar Chest |url=https://virginiahistory.org/learn/lane-cedar-chest |access-date=11 March 2025 |website=Virginia Museum of History & Culture |language=en |archive-date=12 March 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250312074459/https://virginiahistory.org/learn/lane-cedar-chest |url-status=live }}</ref> After developing production-line techniques for ammunition boxes during World War I, they turned these techniques, and a patented locking-mitre corner joint, towards producing chests. They employed celebrity advertising, including a teenage Shirley Temple, in a campaign targeted at GIs and absentee sweethearts of World War II.<ref name=":1" />
Lane Furniture was widely recognized for their Lane Girl Graduate Plan, a series of 1930s advertising gifts of 9" long cedar chests to girls graduating from high-school.<ref name="Schleining, Treasure Chests" /><ref name=":2" /> While Lane Furniture company continued business after its acquisition by Interco Corporation in 1987, the production of Lane Cedar chests stopped in 2001.<ref name=":1" />
== Suffocation hazard to children == There have been 14 reported cases of child suffocation inside hope chests due to the piece's traditional design, which can trap children under a heavy and sometimes self-locking lid.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Boy dies in hope chest |author=Lauren Sellers |date=7 February 2008 |publisher=Orlando Sentinel |url=http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Alt/alt.true-crime/2008-02/msg00544.html |access-date=13 January 2014 |archive-date=13 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140113220413/http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Alt/alt.true-crime/2008-02/msg00544.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1996, following reports of at least six child suffocation deaths, the manufacturer Lane Furniture recalled 12 million self-locking hope chests which could not be opened from the inside. Specifically, the CPSC recall applied to the locks of all "Lane" and "Virginia Maid" cedar chests manufactured between 1912 and 1987. As part of the recall, they provided new latch replacement parts. However, CPSC estimates that 6 million chests still use the recalled lock latch. As of 2023 this recall is no longer available, and owners are encouraged to permanently remove the latch and lock.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CPSC Urges Consumers to Replace or Remove Latches/Locks on Lane and Virginia Maid Cedar Chests; 14 Deaths Reported |publisher=Consumer Product Safety Commission |date=31 January 2023 |url=https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-Releases/2018/CPSC-Urges-Consumers-to-Replace-or-Remove-Latches-Locks-on-Lane-and-Virginia-Maid-Cedar-Chests-14-Deaths-Reported |access-date=9 September 2023 |archive-date=29 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929211800/https://www.cpsc.gov/Newsroom/News-Releases/2018/CPSC-Urges-Consumers-to-Replace-or-Remove-Latches-Locks-on-Lane-and-Virginia-Maid-Cedar-Chests-14-Deaths-Reported |url-status=live }}</ref>
== See also == *Bride price *Dower *Dowry
== References == {{Reflist|30em}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Hope chests}} *{{Wiktionary-inline}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hope Chest}} Category:Chests (furniture) Category:Marriage