Antique Au Depart trunk

Au Depart trunk covered in signature damier canvas, 43x23x24”. Estimated 1890s-1910s. Light damage consistent with age and use (one partially missing leather handle, broken wood slat, etc.). The original interior tray is present. The company’s name and that of Maison Bertin Jeune are featured on plates and engraved in the hardware, showing the address 29, Avenue de l’Opera, Paris. There are labels for the old Hotel Cumberland in NYC and American Express World Expo pasted on the exterior. A handwritten note pasted inside lists the former contents of the trunk and provides and address in Long Island, through which I contacted a relative of the original owner, a woman whose initials are stenciled on the exterior. She was born in Paris and married a US soldier wounded in France during WWI. Later in life she sent the trunk to her sister, to the address provided in the note. That sister’s daughter (now an artist living in NYC) confirmed its provenance.