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We are proud to announce that we have been awarded the gold medal of honor of the Chamber of Trades, by a decision of 01/25/22 of the CMA (Chamber of Trades of Alsace), in recognition eminent and exceptional services rendered to craftsmanship.

The trunk of the representative is called a marmot in French. "Marmotte "is a term that covers all the luggage of professionals for the transport of samples, a salesman travel case.

And here is his story:

To attract the curious, the Savoyard street vendors were accompanied by a tame marmot they carried in a "marmot box". The Savoyard and his marmot were popular figures of the Parisian street, represented by many engravings.

By extension, from the beginning of the nineteenth century, we called "marmot" all trunks, boxes and suitcases, salesman travel case intended for street vending.
Even today, each traveling salesman has a "marmot", adapted to his samples and custom-designed. There are still companies specializing in the manufacture of these trunks.

From hawker to business traveler ...
From 1870, the economic rationalization, the appearance and the development of the samples, the possibility to manage newly the flows thanks to the railroad transforms the hawker in
" salesman ". Here are some examples of marmots:

https://www.la-malle-en-coin.com/fr/component/customfilters/?q=marmotte

When you bought a car in the 1900s, the car did not necessarily have a trunk.

After recovering your car, you went to the trunkmaker, to order a trunk that was used for storage, in the back of the car or on the roof.

In some cases, we also placed a tool storage trunk (crank ...) on the side of the driver ...

This car trunk married the shapes of the body, that's how we find today with cut sides, which is all the charm and originality of these vintage trunks.

All the metal parts (brass, metal ...) of a trunk is called jewelry.

Indeed, with the locks, the clasps, the brackets, the nails, the corners ... there are a certain number of items, very luxurious on the high quality end trunks.

Clasps are also called flags.

The difference between the lock and the clasp: The lock has a key, the clasp consolidates the lock of the barrel without key

The brackets are at the end of slats or around the lid.

On most trunks, there are 8 corners, to protect the barrel of jolts of the trip.

Each nail is riveted or returned in the wood.