Handsome Mahogany Campaign Chest On Chest, English Circa 1850

Further readings and sources:

1. British officers of high social position in the Georgian and Victorian periods (1714-1901) took it for granted that when they set out on a military campaign in Africa or India they could enjoy the same standard of living as they did at home. While “under canvas,” as life in camp was called, an officer and a gentleman assured himself a high degree of comfort by using specially designed pieces of campaign, or knock-down, furniture. The only real difference between fine household furniture and its campaign counterpart was that the latter could be quickly folded up, packed away in boxes, transported, and —– without the use of nails, tacks, or tools –– reassembled in “some corner of another foreign field that was forever elegantly furnished England.” The superb designs of these pieces reflected the strong sense of superiority of the gentleman-officer class, its rank in both society and in the army, and its attitudes toward travel, camp, and battle.

   excerpted from British Campaign Furniture. Elegance under Canvas, 1740-1914, Nicholas A. Brawer, ©2001 P. 19. ↩