Louis Vuitton

Antique Louis Vuitton Trunks & Luggage

Louis Vuitton established his Paris atelier in 1854, and within a generation had built the most celebrated name in luxury travel, its monogram canvas, flat-topped trunk construction, and signature brass hardware becoming the defining language of elite travel for the century that followed. The golden age of the Vuitton trunk spans roughly 1880 to 1940, encompassing the great ocean liner crossings, the Orient Express, and the colonial and expeditionary travel of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During this period the house produced an extraordinary range of forms: the flat-topped steamer trunk engineered for the hold of a transatlantic liner; the low-profile cabin trunk designed to slide beneath the berth of a first-class stateroom; the wardrobe trunk fitted with hangers and drawers for extended travel; the shoe trunk with its individual fitted compartments; the hat trunk; the jewelry case; and the bespoke commission, including library trunks, bar trunks, and expedition trunks in hermetically sealed zinc, produced for individual clients to requirements that no other maker could match. Address stampings on the hardware and serial numbers on the lock plates allow precise dating, with the sequence of Paris addresses, from 1 Rue Scribe through 70 Champs-Élysées, providing a reliable chronological framework for attribution.

Daniels Antiques has been dealing in antique Louis Vuitton trunks and luggage for over twenty years, with one of the most varied and carefully documented collections available in the United States. The inventory spans monogram canvas, natural leather, Roma canvas, flower canvas, and zinc construction, with pieces ranging from the 1880s through the 1940s and including notable-provenance examples, among them a shoe trunk made for opera star Lily Pons and a library trunk specially made for the Encyclopedia Britannica. Each piece is selected for its condition, the originality of its hardware and interior, and the integrity of its dating evidence. Pieces are available for viewing by appointment at our galleries in Aspen, Colorado and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.