HENRY LIKLY Travel wardrobe trunk, wood core and metal reinforcement system, leather side handles marked "Henry Likly Rochester New York" and monogrammed "EC" by Emma Calvé, circa 1910 Henry Likly & Co. baggage makers for American elegance. Founded in the mid-19th century in Rochester, New York, Henry Likly & Co. established itself as one of America's leading manufacturers of trunks and travel goods. Renowned for the sturdiness and refinement of its creations, the company very soon catered to a select clientele: frequent travelers, touring artists and diplomats on the move. Like Louis Vuitton in Europe, Henry Likly offered wardrobe trunks with specialized compartments, designed to carry clothes, shoes and accessories without creasing. They were meticulously crafted, often personalized, and monogrammed models were reserved for distinguished customers. Emma Calvé's use of such an item testifies both to her international stature and to the care she took to preserve her stage costumes while on tour. This trunk illustrates the meeting of the worlds of show business and American-style luxury travel, at a time when opera stars were veritable cultural ambassadors for Europe in the New World. Here's a vivid memory that Emma Calvé herself recounts in her memoir, Sous tous les ciels j'ai chanté, about one of her American triumphs in Carmen at New York's Metropolitan Opera: "One evening, at the Metropolitan, in a performance of Carmen, I felt the auditorium quiver like a single being. This American audience, reputed to be cold, was on fire that night. At the end of the second act, a heavy silence followed my aria. Then, all of a sudden, thunderous applause erupted. I was called back ten times. I was overwhelmed. As I left the stage, the director said to me: "Madame Calvé, the New York public has never been so moved. I realized then that in America too, Carmen had become a living legend." She adds, not without pride: "Americans, usually restrained, gave me flowers, jewelry, letters of thanks. I was received at dinner by the Vanderbilts, the Astors... And yet, it was on that stage at the MET, in my bohemian costume, that I felt the truest. Carmen was my double."