Victorian campaign furniture - furniture used on military campaigns in the 1800s

Magazine Antiques, Sept, 2000 by Nicholas A. Brawer

In 1837, when George Eden (1784-1849), Lord Auckland, the governor-general of India, and his two sisters took a trip "up the country" from Calcutta, they had at their disposal 60 horses, 140 elephants, 200 to 300 baggage camels, and "bullock carts without end." [1] They also had 12,000 camp followers. [2] The amount of campaign furniture that would have accompanied an officer and a gentleman such as Lord Auckland was on a scale worthy of the British Empire itself. As the nineteenth-century scientist and travel writer Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) rightly observed:

The luxuries and elegances practicable in tent-life, are only limited by the means of transport. Julius Caesar, who was a great campaigner, carried parquets of wooden mojaic for hum floors! [3]

The campaign furniture of British officers during the Victorian period represented more than the comforts of home while abroad; it became a visual symbol of the splendor of the empire. Why, after all, should an officer in an empire befitting Caesar's not proclaim his identity as a conqueror in his dress and furniture?

In 1835, while fighting in Cape Colony, South Africa, Colonel Harry George Wakelyn Smith (1787-1860) ordered the Seventy-second Regiment of Foot to wear scarlet tunics, although such a uniform made them an excellent target in the bush. The colonel felt the color would remind the enemy of "a great Power beyond the seas." [4] Such field commanders would often take with them on campaigns entire drawing-room suites of upholstered furniture designed to disassemble completely without the use of tacks, nails, or tools (see Pls. I, II). Such suites were often complemented by portable bookcases, such as the ingenious one shown in Plates V and VI. Although domestic in appearance, the bookcase can be quickly and easily knocked down and reassembled for use in camp. Indeed, in its clever and adaptable design campaign furniture was as much appreciated by emigrants, civil servants, and colonists as it was by naval and military officers.

The seeds for such extravagances were already evident in the Georgian period. [5] In 1830, for example, the anonymous author of The Navy "At Home" described a captain's cabin aboard a man-of-war in such a way as to illustrate the dual nature of the British officer and gentleman: accomplished in peace, fierce in war.

Here ranged well filled book-cases--there, double barreled pistols, and Turkish and French sabers--Here polished mahogany satin chairs, vases of flowers, and billet-doux--there, stern cold iron, in the shape of eighteen pounders...in the fore cabin hung a beautiful or-molu lamp, over a festive board...with all the delicacies of all the world--now garnished with...cut glass decanters, different sorts of wine, and a luncheon on a tray, after the most approved modes of the fashionable world. In short, all was of the most refined elegance, of the most approved taste, of the most exquisite delicacy, and of the richest description, side by side, with the instruments of stem and instant destruction. [6]

In the Georgian period good pieces of campaign furniture were available only to officers of high rank with deep pockets. In Victorian times, by contrast, even mid-level officers began to take whole suites of campaign furniture with them. Such suites were made in Britain according to the style of the day and would not have looked out of place in a fashionable London town house. In 1865, for example, when the English campaign furniture makers S. W. Silver and Company exhibited a line of folding furniture at the New Zealand Exhibition in Dunedin, the Reports and Awards of Jurors stated that the company's portable chairs "although fit for luxuriantly furnished apartments in point of appearance, can yet be folded and removed with all the readiness of a camp stool." [7]

A typical drawing room suite of campaign furniture was advertised by the Army and Navy Co-operative Society of London in 1881. [8] It consisted of a mahogany or walnut chiffonier designed to hold a knockdown couch, folding round or oval table, two collapsible easy chairs for a man and a woman, and four dining chairs stuffed with horsehair and covered with wool, damask, or leather. Captain Benjamin Simner of the Seventy-sixth Regiment took a similar suite with him while stationed in India from 1865 to 1877 (see Pls. I, II). It was made by Ross and Company of Dublin from walnut grown on the family estate at Bective, Ireland. The suite was a wedding present to the captain and his wife, Frances Mary Bolton, on March 27, 1863. It consisted of a dining table, four dining chairs, a lady's chair" with settee, and a pedestal sideboard. Originally the set came with a portable bath, and it may have included some bedroom furniture as well. [9] Remarkably, the suite folded neatly into the boxes which were used as the ped estals for a sideboard. For twelve years the captain and his wife traveled with the suite from Madras to Burma to Secunderabad in Northern India. They then had it shipped back to Chatham in Kent in 1877, [10] where it probably furnished their drawing room during the captain's retirement.