The funny thing is, even though this trunk looks distressed, it works in a modern home. Minimal interiors actually make the colours pop. The scratches and paint chips add contrast you can’t buy in a shop antique chest (click through the up coming article). I remember when the circus came to town once a year. Posters glued to walls promised elephants, fire breathers, acrobats — and always clowns. Looking at the trunk feels like it was there backstage, stuffed with costumes and props, waiting for the show to begin.

Old storage boxes aren’t just places to keep things. They’re time capsules. Before cheap mass storage appeared, trunks were the way people travelled. Built solid, heavy duty, sometimes decorated with brass corners or painted lettering. When I first stumbled across the circus clown trunk, I just stared. The red-nosed clown staring upside down across the front felt like more than decoration. It felt like a piece of a lost world — a travelling circus.