Georgian Campaign Furniture

Magazine Antiques, June, 2000 by Nicholas A. Brawer

The close relationship between knockdown and regular household furniture is evident in the tradecards of William Pocock, who was likewise engaged in manufacturing telescopic dining tables. In an advertisement of 1814 Pocock described the construction of his tables as

so astonishingly simple, and the Scale so variable as to suit either the Cottage Orn[acute{e}]e, the festive Board of the hospitable Mansion, or the extensive Entertainments of the Nobility and Men of Fashion. [It] can... form an elegant Piece of Furniture for a Dining-Room.... And yet can be made so portable as to go with the Baggage of a Regiment for the Officers' Mess. [13]

The advertisement shows that gentleman officers in the Georgian period desired to replicate their permanent homes while in the field and would go to any expense to maintain their station in life. It was precisely because issues of class and respectability were taken so seriously that custom makers of knockdown furniture were able to flourish.

A Morgan and Sanders tradecard of about 1810 illustrated a range of interesting portable army and navy equipage, including portable chairs made to any pattern "plain & with Arms, of Mahogany, or elegantly Japan'd...a dozen of which pack in the space of two common chairs." They included a sofa bed "contrived on purpose for Captains Cabins, & Ladies or Gentlemen going to the East or West Indies," which formed "an elegant Sofa, & maybe transformed with great ease into a complete Four Post Bed, with Bedding Furniture, &c." There was also a chair bed "forming a handsome easy Chair, & is with great ease transformed into a Tent Bed, with Furniture & Bedding complete," and finally "elegant Four Post & Tent Bedsteads, with Lath or Sacking bottoms" that could be assembled or taken down in a few minutes without tools. [14]

Comfort was as highly valued as elegance in Georgian knockdown furniture. Pocock claimed in one of his advertisements that his patent sofa beds made a

comfortable and convenient Sofa and Bed, suitable either for Camp or Barracks, or on Board a Ship, or even for an elegant Drawing-Room; and yet are very portable by folding into a very small Compass for the Convenience of Carriage.

He added that "they have been highly approved by distinguished Officers in the Army and Navy." [15]

The comfort of English furniture in general was noticed by Hermann, prince of P[ddot{u}]cklerMuskau (1785-1871), a German landowner and landscape gardener; who, on a visit to London in 1826, was struck by the "superlative comfort" of the furniture and elegant, if informal, behavior peculiar to the British, He wrote:

It is a positive pleasure even to see an Englishman sit, or rather lie, in one of these couch-like chairs by the fire-side....The practice of half lying instead of sitting; sometimes of lying at full length on the carpet at the feet of ladies; or crossing one leg over the other in such a manner as to hold the foot in the hand; or putting the hands in the arm-holes of the waistcoat, and so on--are all things which have obtained in the best company and most exclusive circles. [16]