Hamilton Letterpress cabinets

Need help indentifying year and worth of 6 Hamilton cabinets that were given to me from a printing company that went out of business in Minneapolis. Two eight tray, two 10 tray, a 15 tray and a 20 tray . All are about 21 X 21 and 24”, 27” 34” & 44” tall. All are solid oak except one appears softer, maybe cedar or mahogany. All are very full of lead type of various fonts & sizes. two of them are full of Brass type. All have about a 1/2 inch of dust on them. I don’t think they have been used in a very long time. The Woodwork is beautiful. the Trays are all 16 1/2 X 18 1/2 and have Hamilton pulls on them. they have 49 equal compartments (7 X 7). There are three differently constructed drawer types. Solid bottom, pieced bottom and some have a supporting edge on bottom (All Wood). Interiorof cabinets is unfinished rough wood. They have stamped Hamilton on drawer edges and many have paper to back of tray indicating font type. Also was given A furniture case with what appears to be mahogany furniture (full). I am not a print or press collector, but a coin collector and asked if I could have one to store my coins in. He said take them all.

Please give me any advice or info you have. It would be greatly appreciated. Also was given other related items. I am not advertising, just looking for some direction.

thanks,

Scott

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They sound like letterboard cabinets, rather than type cabinets. They are somewhat more exotic than type cabinets, but probably of greater value to printers since there are no drawers for making knick knack racks out of them. I would imagine bookbinders would be very interested in the brass type, but the lead type may be of interest too. You might want to post photos of these over in classifieds if selling, or here if you want more specific answers.

These cases seem to be cases designed for storage of borders and ornaments as they do indeed have divisions (49 per case). Similar cabinets were produced for storing titling fonts for bookbinding. This may indeed be what they are if some of the type in them is brass.

A posted picture would help with identification.

Thanks for your comments. I will have some pics posted later this week.

Hamilton glued a paper “inspected by” label inside of their enclosed wooden cabinets. Remove the cases and drawers and look on the inner back of the cabinet - high up. You may find the actual inspection label. I found one dated 1928 in one of my cabinets…

They could have been made by Thompson as well - http://www.thompsoncabinet.com/

Otherwise, post photos and we’ll all dig out our old catalogs and figure out what you have there.