In 1858 Louis Vuitton introduced the first flat-topped trunk that could be stacked. Christie's calls it a revolution, because until then travel trunks had curved lids, shaped to shed water, which meant they could not be stacked. Wikipedia notes that Vuitton had observed how easily another maker's trunk could be stacked.
Vuitton, born in 1821 in Anchay in eastern France, walked to Paris as a teenager and trained as a packing-case maker. In 1853 he became box-maker and packer to Empress Eugénie, and in 1854 he opened his own workshop on rue Neuve-des-Capucines. The new trunks were covered in Trianon canvas, a grey, water-resistant, odourless and hard-wearing fabric that made them light and airtight.
Success followed quickly: in 1859 Vuitton opened a larger workshop at Asnières, outside Paris, where the house still makes its trunks. Imitations of the grey canvas led him to introduce striped canvases in 1872 and 1876. For the 2021 bicentenary of his birth, the house invited 200 people to reimagine the original 1858 trunk.