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Description:
Samsonite Luggage was founded on March 10, 1910 by Colorado native Jesse Shwayder. Jesse grew in the west in the 1880's, in his twenties he moved to New York and was a very successful sales rep for a large luggage company, missing the west he returned to his native Colorado and founded his own luggage company. The company was originally known as the Shwayder Trunk Manufacturing Company was started by Jesse with his life's savings of $3,500 and a work force of 10 men. He began manufacturing suitcases in a 50x125 foot room in downtown Denver. He was eventually joined in the business by his three brothers. From the research I did on this I found that around 1916 they named their suitcase "Samson" and around 1919 changed the name of their suitcases to "Samsonite", the Samson name originated from a marketing picture that would become an advertising coup, all four brothers and their father, stood on a plank positioned atop one of their suitcases above the caption, "Strong enough to stand on", their combined weight being about 1000 pounds. This advertising ploy was extremely successful and sales skyrocketed.
This suitcase is no doubt one of his early ones, I purchased it several years ago and it was filled with all kinds of things from the early 1900's. It is a larger size then what one usually sees and has much more of a trunk type appearance, measurements are 26" long by 13 1/2" wide and 9" deep. It has two latches plus a center snap latch, the end latches are marked with Shwayder, the center latch is marked Shwayder Trunk Mfg & Co, Denver, all three latches work, I do not have have the key for the center one. In addition to the latches it has two straps, ends of the straps are marked Shwayer, Denver.
The inside has a blue floral or pinwheel pattern paper covering, it is in good condition, does have some areas where it has worn away and you can see the old wood construction that the case is made of. The top has a drop down section to hold clothing, it has adjustable leather straps and the straps are in excellent condition, hard to find in these old cases. The case also has the original Samson Label on the inside, label is pictured below.
| Status: For Sale |
Reference#: TS566 |
| Condition:
Excellent |
Year:
Early 1900s
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| Country:
USA |
Maker:
Samson Samsonite Shwayder |
| Height:
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Depth:
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Width:
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| Title:
Antique Samson Samsonite Shwayder Blk Suitcase |
Style:
Trunk |
| Type:
Samson Samsonite |
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