Hope chest


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. Today, some furniture makers refer to hope chests as chests made to hold family heirlooms or general storage items.
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. 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.
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. 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, however over time dowry chests gradually became smaller, with jewelry boxes emerging instead of large dowry boxes.
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. 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

While not an essential to the function of a hope chest, different forms of decoration have historically appeared in many styles.

Carving

Engraving

Painting

Gesso

Sulfur inlay

Lane cedar chest

The Lane Furniture Company of Altavista, Virginia was a notable maker of cedar chests. 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. 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. While Lane Furniture company continued business after its acquisition by Interco Corporation in 1987, the production of Lane Cedar chests stopped in 2001.

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. 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.