From Fashionable Travel to Fashion As Furniture

It's rare to find old Louis Vuitton trunks in good condition, because cases like this usually saw hard use over many years of service. Before air travel turned global circumnavigation into mere hops, skips and jumps, intrepid voyagers packed at least a month's worth of clothes and necessities into serious luggage; loaded it onto carriages, wagons or lorries; transferred it to ocean liners; collected it on the further shore; and continued the process indefinitely. Even a single Grand Tour could sorely test the strength of corners, locks and hinges (not to mention human limits of patience and endurance).

Still, trunks do show up from time to time, and they're always in great demand–not as trunks per se, since only old-school nomads and those hoping to mimic them bother schlepping gear in such an impractical way, but as status coffee tables. Rau Antiques, in New Orleans, currently has two low trunks like the one above, and an enormous, upright wardrobe that would look spectacular in a loft or a walk-in closet. Obviously, they're very expensive, but they're also good investments: the asking price for cases like this tends to go up every year. And even stuffing money in your mattress won't accomplish that.