Help identifying Antique Pullman Train brass luggage rack

weppler1978 · **Joined:** Wed Jun 12, 2013 9:50 pm **Posts:** 1

Hi

Can anyone take a look at this item I put a bid on, its a brass pullman train luggage rack. Can anyone date this piece, I tend to prefer early stuff they have listed as 20's but I'm thinking earlier?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0923445302

Thanks

Bill

Howard P. · **Posted:** Thu Jun 13, 2013 11:46 am

Does not look like anything I've ever seen in a Pullman.... and I have been in a few.

There are a LOT of fakes on E-bay, in MANY categories (not just railroad items). Not saying this one is, but caveat emptor always applies when out in the bazaar.

Howard P.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Thu Jun 13, 2013 12:00 pm

With a complete lack of provenance (no casting marks, no "Pullman Company" name cast on, no photos of the car it was removed from), you're far better off shuffling down to Restoration Hardware or somewhere else and paying far less for something to use as a "luggage rack" shelf.

EBay has been routinely full of people selling reproduction or misrepresented railroad artifacts and hardware--cab whistles the size of an overgrown thumb as a "steem whilstle from the famous Broadway Limited," for example. "Caveat Emptor," indeed.

Dennis Storzek · **Posted:** Thu Jun 13, 2013 12:34 pm

7" deep by only 13" long? Kinda small for a luggage rack, no? More likely a little shelf to hold folded towels, just as likely to be a hotel furnishing as railroad.

Bobharbison · **Joined:** Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:42 pm **Posts:** 3011

Seriously doubt it's real. If you have to have it, buy it here for $75.

http://www.fvstore.com/Vintage-Railroad ... 28870.html

Bobharbison · **Joined:** Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:42 pm **Posts:** 3011

Most telling clue? No lip on it and no angle to the rack. If it was real (it's too small, but let's ignore that for a moment) the first hard curve you went around would find your overhead luggage hovering over your head, but only for a microsecond before it crashes into you on the way to the floor.

Look for basic designs features. Unlike this towel rack, or whatever it is, most real luggage racks are either angled and/or have lips on them to hold the luggage in place.

A couple of purely random examples from google: (When searching for these images, it's best to look for racks that are actually shown installed, since there's no way to determine if a random loose rack is actually related to Pullman or any other railroad car.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/blazingtra ... /lightbox/

This second has a small lower shelf without much angle, but it has a small lip and appears to be intended as a hat rack due to it's size.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blazingtra ... /lightbox/

Bobharbison · **Joined:** Fri Dec 03, 2004 9:42 pm **Posts:** 3011

Pullman sure made a lot of those... ;)

http://www.etsy.com/listing/121084100/v ... otel-towel

Quote:

Vintage Brass Pullman Train Hotel Towel Wall Shelf Rack

Pullman Hotel? Is that in Pullman, WA?