Capt. Canney's Chinese Export Trunk

This green leather on camphor wood China Trade trunk has an engraved name plate for Capt. Thomas Canney.

Little is known of the captain but it is very likely that it is the same Thomas Canney who transported convicts to Australia on The Katherine Stewart Forbes. The ship went first to New South Wales in 1830 and then to Van Diemen's Land in 1832. These dates would fit in with the trunk and it's possible that Canney purchased the trunk whilst in the East.

The trunk is plain to the interior and has brass carrying handles to the sides. It is a typical Chinese Export Trunk and many hundreds that were sold to the Europeans passing through the east or exported to the west for retail. The brass studs are both decorative and to add strength and the camphor would repel insects. Often the trunks have a shield shaped escutcheon and a ring handle to lift the lid with carrying handles to the sides.

The leather to these trunks were commonly black or green but occasionally trunks in other colours or with hand painted flower decoration turn up. They were sold in a number of sizes and often as a set. However, this trunk stand out for the engraved name plate. Early 19th Century.