This antique leather handle and bag have brass fittings.
According to Princeton University's WordNet, an antique is best defined as anything "made in or typical of earlier times and valued for its age." Hard rules on how old an item is before it becomes a true antique vary from shop to shop, and between jurisdictions. The term antique comes from antiquus, the Latin word for old. Collectors buy and sell based on condition, age and rarity of each item.
Antique Leather Briefcases
Antique leather briefcases come in both hard and soft-shelled varieties and countless styles. The earliest remaining examples of leather briefcase date from the early 1900s. Even high-quality leather will deteriorate over time making older pieces brittle and easy to damage.
Soft-shelled cases are particularly prone to damage created by flexing after long periods of storage. Dressing the leather is essential in making an item functional. Once an item has been properly dressed, the fibers inside the leather move freely without tearing. Brass and steel buckles are indicative style markers of antique cases; complex mechanical latching mechanisms are rarer.
For hard-shelled cases, a working latch mechanism is vital to the overall value of the item. Leather briefcases usually are utilitarian and heavily stitched; more ornate items fetch higher prices.
Antique Leather-bound Chests
Leather-bound chests were once extremely popular for moving personal items. The leather shell gives the chest more durability than an exposed wood or metal frame.
Antique dealers market leather chests as not only storage chests, but as a coffee table solution. Luxury chests often have burnt or carved decorative patterns which enhance the value.
When it comes to chests, the internal frame is just as vital as the leather covering in terms of value. If you have a damaged chest, do not attempt to fix it yourself. Bring it to a professional conservator so the authenticity and value of the item remain intact. Leather-bound chests are usually fully covered while some rare items have leather only to shield edges.
Purpose-Built Antique Leather Cases
The most iconic purpose-built leather case is probably the doctor's house-call bag. The bags are notable for their heavy-duty leather, metal clasping top, uniformity and being almost universally black. The inside of such a case would have specialized compartments for tools and glass vials of medicine.
Other purpose-built cases existed for virtually every tool, particularly items of importance such as compasses and sextants for navigation. In earlier periods of history, leather was used much the same way as plastic is today for tool belts and cases.
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