Canadian Art Deco Hope Chest Found

I finally got proof today that a Hope Chest I bought at a garage sale years ago is actually a piece of Canadian Art Deco.  What a find!

I found it years ago before I decided I would get into Interior Decorating.  I fell in love with the simple lines of this chest even though it was covered in chipped paint and a couple of damaged areas and a missing lock.

If anyone knows how I can get another lock and key for this chest I would be greatly appreciated to know.

After taking off about seven layers of paint and shellac. I discovered that it was solid red and white cedar with a bookmark grain!!! It looks like a butterfly I can't believe people painted over it!!!

This had been abandoned by a family after a relative died in a nursing home.  The yard sale was items they didn't want to throw away.  I got this chest for $100 with a bookcase and a lamp.

This chest was made by the Chesley Chair Factory in Chesley, Ontario.  It was part of their Heirloom Collection and they stopped manufacturing them in 1939.  This town is in Bruce County in Ontario, Canada.  So it never left the country as far as I know, but I'm most likely the second or third person to own it.  You can still smell the cedar when you take the linens from it.

This was a piece people could afford and so there are many on the market right now; however, I only found one that is similar in style to this one, but I prefer the grain on the one I have.  I don't know if the ones on kijiji.ca are being sold by people that know what they have as they are asking for about $300-$500 for them.  I'm afraid I used varathane to finish this before I knew what I had so I may have lost some of it's value, but it's been returned to how it was when it was first bought.  They used shellac to finish them originally.

There is a bookcase now beside this chest and not the blue totes you see.  These totes were a temporary holding place for a book collection of my husband of books we just don't want our son to destroy because there is no way of getting replacements.

As you can see I'm using it to keep our linens in it, the real linen closet holds towels and cleaning supplies.  I wanted a lock on the cleaning supplies when my son became obsessed with cleaning.  I love the fact that I can use this beautiful piece and hope to get the rest of my bedroom to reflect it.  Maybe not in art deco but in the warmth of family and tradition.