Author Topic: Antique Box-Crompton & Knowles Loomworks-Worcester  (Read 4155 times)

Trey

  • Just Moved Here
  • *
  • Posts: 1
Antique Box-Crompton & Knowles Loomworks-Worcester
« on: July 20, 2005, 04:49:06 AM »
I know this is a strange request, but I have just purchased a very old and well-worn box that measures about two and a half feet by 14 inches and is a foot deep.  Inside there is a removable tray with three sections.  There is a metal medallion on the box that reads "Crompton and Knowles Loom Works, Worcester, Mass"  The medallion also has an identification number engraved on it.  It was, at one time, lockable.

I bought this box to turn it into a coffee table in my son's condo, and I would love to be able to tell him what it was once used for.  The inside has a faint oily or chemical smell and seems to have a lot of very dark, maybe black, stains, particularly on the inside bottom.

Can anyone help me identify the box's former use?  Would the chemicals that I smell cause a health hazard?

Thanks for your help.

T. Doak
Chapel Hill, NC