If I can scrounge some scrap material, maybe I can track down an interior designer and find out what the closest modern fabric would be.
The dark purple material is velvet like. The red one I'm not sure. It's a bit rough, vertical lines kinda visible. I'm no expert, but I think the dark purple one is an older case style, just a guess.
Looking at the logos, I'd suspect that the red one is the older, as it's a much simpler, wider logo. The velvet one is a bit more jazzed up. It's rare that companies simplify their logos. Usually they make them more complicated as they go along.
Very possible because on a newer metal case I have, it has the velvet lining with a metal logo piece glued to the cover lining.It's just that the reddish one has a cheaper feel to it.
If it were made around WW-I, cheaper fabrics would have been what was available. It's amazing what changes in fabrics happened between the 1880's and 1930's.
I'd argue that logos reflect the time in which they are created and that simplification is actually a normal process. Take the IBM logo, for instance: Or Starbucks: Or AT&T:
@John Ruschmeyer - I think you just proved my point. Keep in mind that the logo for AT&T in 1969 was simply a bell with a circle (in 1889 it was a bell with a square). After the breakup and merges, it went to a graduated striped globe - much more complicated. The last one you showed is not only graduated, but overlaid as well. (They even ripped the giant brass bell off of the main building here. Assholes ) Starbucks didn't simplify - they just zoomed in, so I think we can ignore that one. (The difference between the picture in 1971 and 87 is easy to explain as getting rid of the sexual characteristics) The IBM one is harder to justify, as it's not even related to itself. If you go to the IBM logo (second row), then the first one is simplest, and the last one is the most complicated, from a graphics perspective. The first row isn't even a single logo. It's three monograms and a logo.
