Caronia Dresser, First Class

Product Description

After her retirement and an aborted cruise under new ownership, Cunard’s RMS Caronia spent years wandering aimlessly throughout New York Harbor.  In 1974 Caronia’s owner decided to sell the furniture and fittings from this most famous of Cunarders, knowing that she would be going for scrap shortly.  One lingering question I have always had is how much of Caronia’s fittings had actually been taken off her before she started her tow to Taiwan.

During my several decades of Caronia research, I have talked to a number of people involved in the sale in the early 1970s, and from what they tell me, it seems that the ship was fairly well stripped of her furniture and fittings before she left New York.  It is from that sale that this dresser comes.  Although it is not marked with a cabin number, it is certainly from a cabin far forward because of the sheer cut into the base.  This dresser came from the same family as the other I’m selling; so my guess is that they came from the same first-class area on R Deck forward.

Measures about 27.5″ x 22.5″ x 21″.  The size of this chest makes it fit well in any setting including smaller rooms.  Solid but might need a professional restorer to be exquisite when redone.  That’s up to you as it is usable as is.  What you see now is how the family I bought it from was using it all these years.  That family obtained it at the ship’s fitting sale themselves in 1974.  The side shows where another cabinet had been attached, but when refinished, this will disappear.  See the archival for a similar cabinet on board Caronia.