A wonderful natural leather covered Louis Vuitton trunk with original leather handles and brass fittings, circa 1920. Termed by Louis Vuitton as a ‘Malle Secrétaire’, translating as 'desk trunk'. The trunk features a leather covered slide out surface that can be used as a desktop during a journey or for folding clothes when packing the trunk. Also the bottom drawer of this trunk was specifically designed for shoes, with a felt lining. At sometime prior to our ownership, the two largest drawers have been professionally re-lined.
The trunk was originally owned by Alice (Cheney) Baltzell, hence the original initials on the sides of the trunk, A.C.B. Alice Cheney was the daughter of Benjamin Pierce Cheney who rose to the height of Boston’s banking aristocracy, founded the company that would go on to become American Express and served as a leading director of Wells Fargo. She married Dr. William Hewson Baltzell in 1907 and built a 3-story, 40-room house constructed in neo-Georgian style, sporting an Italian marble entrance with steps and Ionic columns situated within the Chaney family's 182-acre Elm Bank Estate, in Wellesley, Massachusetts, where they lived.
Dimensions: 57 cm/22⅜ inches (width) x 52 cm/20½ inches (depth) x 90 cm/35½ inches (height).
