I first saw this tool chest in the summer of 1973. We had gone to Manchester, Maine to visit my wife's grandparents as they were unable to travel to our wedding. After about a half day, Grampy Al took me to his garage and showed me the chest. He said he knew I liked woodworking, and regretted not sending me a wedding gift. So he opened this wonderful chest and handed me a Stanley 45 in the box. Well, half the box, the top was no where to be found. I was so thrilled and deeply thanked him. I wanted to get as much of the story of the chest that I could, and intend to print all this knowledge and put it in the chest. Albert was an electrician all his life and in the day he worked on many of the first nuclear power plants put up on the east coast. (Unfortunately asbestosis from the job ended his life) When he came back home from extended weeks of work on the job site, he would even pick up some side work. On one occasion a widow called and asked him to come by to look at doing some electrical work. She had little money, but offered him a barter. His work for the chest. The next time I saw the chest was in the mid 1990s when we went to California for a visit with my in-laws. My Father-in-law had the chest in their living room and using it as a coffee table. I was a bit heartbroken to see most of the tools were now gone, and my Mother-in-law had used brass polish carelessly and there were ghost shadows around all the brass corners. The third time I saw it was when our son moved back from LA to Chicago to work at a different civil engineering company. Bob had passed away and his wife Lucy sent the tool chest to IL for me. That was 2013. And now I am going to clean it up and fill it with my own antique tool collection. As I turn 70 next month, I've decided to get these things in my den and organized. The chest is made of white pine and was made around 1920 in Hallowell, Maine. It's 18" high, 23"x36". No record was made of the maker and I find no markings on the chest. All the original 4 sliding tills are there, and a 4 handsaw storage till is built into the inside back of the case. One very old framing square hangs inside the lid. One very curious and interesting feature is the brass screw decorations. The top panel has a fairly intricate decoration of round head screws and to my delight, all the straight slots in the screws are in line. This man was a true craftsman! The only missing part is the chest half of the lock. It is a true treasure!
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