Hope chest

For other uses, see Hope chest (disambiguation).
Intricate designs; typically the most decorated in the home during the prime time of the hope chest.
Girl inspecting her hope chest, by Poul Friis Nybo, c. 1900
Renaissance hope chest (cassone) from Florence (15th century)

A hope chest, also called dowry chest, cedar chest, trousseau chest, or glory box, is a piece of furniture once commonly used by unmarried young women to collect items, such as clothing and household linen, in anticipation of married life.

The term "hope chest" or "cedar chest" is used in the United States; in the United Kingdom, the term is "bottom drawer"; while both terms, and "glory box" are used by women in Australia.[1][2] Today, some furniture makers refer to chests made to hold family heirlooms or general storage items as hope chests.

A trousseau was a common coming-of-age rite until approximately the 1950s; it was typically a step on the road to marriage between courting a man and engagement. It wasn't always collected in a special chest, hence the alternative UK term bottom drawer, which refers to putting aside one drawer in a chest of drawers for collecting the trousseau undisturbed, but such a chest was an acceptable gift for a girl approaching a marriageable age.

Contents of a "hope chest" or "glory box" included typical dowry items such as clothing (especially a special dress), table linens, towels, bed linens, quilts and occasionally dishware. As a bride would typically leave home on marriage, hope chests were sometimes made with an eye to portability, albeit infrequently. Examples of hand-made items made between 1916 and 1918 for a trousseau by a prospective bride are on display in the National Museum of Australia.[3] In this case, the trousseau— never used because its creator's fiancé was killed in World War I before the marriage took place — was stored in calico bags rather than in a chest.

The hope chest was often used for the firstborn girl of a family. Instead of just having sheets and household linen in the bottom drawer, this box would transport these goods and dowries and then later be used as a standard piece of furniture for the lady of the house to use. This dowry chest was often richly decorated, however over time dowry chests gradually became smaller, with jewelry boxes emerging instead of large dowry boxes.[4]

By contrast, a "bridal chest" was given to a bride at her wedding by her husband, and so is not a "hope chest" in this regard.

  1. ^ "Macquarie Dictionary".
  2. ^ Kingston, Beverley (1977). My Wife, My Daughter and Poor Mary Ann – Women and Work in Australia. Melbourne: Nelson. p. 102. ISBN 0-17-005212-5. "By the turn of the [20th] century the trousseau and the glory-box had become accepted institutions for the readers of the weekly and monthly women's magazines."
  3. ^ "Cotton nightdress made by Muriel McPhee". National Museum of Australia. Archived from the original on 2016-11-23. Retrieved 2012-02-22.
  4. ^ Stone, Caroline (2015). "The Art of the Dowry Chest". Saudi Aramco World. Retrieved 2018-06-05.