I recently attended a wedding in the old fashioned town of Alta Vista in Virginia. There was a little museum there which featured the story of the Lane Furniture Company. The family owned business began in the 1800’s and reached it’s hey day in the 1920’s – 1940’s. Lane was known for it ‘s cedar lined chests.
The most famous chest was the “Hope Chest” 
which was a gift for a newly betrothed woman. She was to place all of her treasures that she was saving for her future marriage in this chest. Popular advertisements in Life magazine featured WWII G. I.’s far from home saving money and purchasing their girl a Lane “Hope chest” . The girls in the ads had stars in their eyes and took this as a sign of true love. The sale of Lane “hope chests” sky rocketed. All Lane chests were handed down from mother to daughter or grand mother to grand daughter.
Actually my dad bought my mom a Lane “Hope Chest” in the 1940’s. It was always a treasured piece of furniture in our home and my mom kept all of her most precious mementos in this chest. At some point in the 1970’s she painted it blue as was the style. She eventually gave her hope chest to me, my husband stripped it and returned it to its original stain. We gave it to our daughter in 2011 when she graduated from James Madison University, which ironically is located near the original site of the Lane Furniture Co. Sadly that same year, 2011, Lane Furniture company made their last “hope Chest”. The chest was in the little museum in Alta Vista, Va..
This story is a little sad isn’t it? But there is a silver lining in every dark cloud. Guess what? The chest my Dad gave my mom is still here. It has as much life in it as the day it was made. It can be painted, stained, stripped and repainted. It can get banged up and scratched and re-sanded. The same can not be true for the Pottery Barn chest or any other piece of modern replica furniture. First of all it would never have lasted that long. Pottery Barn is meant to be replaced often. You can’t strip a piece of furniture made from “Paper wood”. You can’t sand it. You can’t re stain it and you can’t paint it again. But there are plenty of original Lane Hope chests around that you can sand, stain or paint. American vintage furniture lets you create your own family keepsake and stories. You can hand down Vintage American furniture for many, many years to come.
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