Likely influenced by Henry Studley's toolbox, but you never know, necessity is the mother of invention.
Brian L.
It's gorgeous! Wish I had the time and inclination to make something like this. I don't think he was much influenced by Studley's tour de force, but by a kind of 19th Century standard. The first picture is of the Hood Hadley shop, and you can see two similar though smaller cases that belong to individual carpenters who worked at their stations.
The second shows a carpenter (November 1864) with his vertical tool chest, quite similar in construction.
The next two pictures, one from 1890 and the other from 1911, show what one could purchase, complete with tools.
