A Rare & Unusual Georgian Campaign Table.

A Rare & Unusual Georgian  Campaign Table.

When you first see this late 18th century table you may not think it is "campaign" or that unusual. Maybe the first clue to it not being what it appears would be that the top is made from two pieces of timber.
 Once seeing this you next thought might be " The top is from a card table. That can't be right." You decide to have a closer look and see what its all about.

     So what do we notice from this photo:
        1. The top is hinged but not folding upwards like a card or table but        downwards. Most odd.
        2. The timber to the top and side rails is a dense Cuban mahogany.
        3. Unusually, the legs with their boxwood stringing are made of a lighter possibly Honduras mahogany.                    Can this table be right ?

Lets have a look underneath and see whats going on.

Interesting. We have 8 iron hinged fixings that are connecting the top to the base section. Lets undo these and see what happens.

Undoing the hinge fittings has allowed the top to be removed and further iron fittings allow the legs to be removed from the frieze rails. So we have a table that completely dis-mantles.

So, what can we deduce from this?
     From the style of the square tapered legs with the boxwood stringing this table would date to around 1790. We know that at this period in the second half of 18th century cabinet makers were experimenting with different designs to make furniture that could be dis-mantled to make it portable.
       At this period the campaign furniture would look like its domestic equivalent and would usually be made by cabinet makers rather than makers who specialised in travel furniture. Some of the known  furniture designers  of the time included some portable furniture in their design books but there were not, that we have discovered, that many designs available for their subscribers. 

 For this reason we occasionally come across furniture which we believe were bespoke made for a client and possibly one off  pieces. I believe that to be the case with this table.
      Two last details that should be mentioned are that all the fitting are iron as opposed to brass which is unusual. Possibly, even blacksmith made that leads me to believe that the table is more likely than not made by a provincial cabinet maker. Secondly, why did the maker not put hinges to the top section the other way around to allow the top to close and protect the polished surface as opposed to this way that means it will not close flat as the iron hinges are in the way?

By Simon Clarke.

The " Naval " Campaign Chair.

Circa 1760.

Probably my favourite design of campaign chair is a type we tend to call the " Naval " chair because we have plenty of documentary evidence of them being used on board ship and because their design is so well suited to use on ship where the decks may have to be cleared at speed. They are usually one piece except a few that have a removable seat and can fold flat in seconds. Ideal if you are heading into battle and you need space around the guns.

The earliest examples I have come across would be a set of chairs in the Great hall at Cotehele which for some reason are referred to, from memory, as the Banks chairs. They would date from the 1740s.

Second Chair from Right . Circa 1740.

This next chair is one of a pair which we underbid on this week. ( you can only go so far and sadly I didn't think we could go any further and still make a profit. ). They are the first of this period we have ever seen and can be considered very rare.

Circa 1750.

Date wise a little after this chair would be the one at the top of the page which one could imagine may date from 1800. In fact, examples of single and armchair versions of this model can be seen in Nelsons Cabin on board HMS Victory. ( Some they have are modern copies. )

Nelson's Cabin HMS Victory.

However, in Treve Rosoman's excellent article in the FHS 1997 Journal "Some Aspects of Eighteen-Century Naval Furniture" he mentions a set of this design travelling with an Admiral Boscawen on his final voyage to Canada in 1758 and another set with Admiral Paulet in the 1750's.

Another variation on the design would be this example which we have also sold.

Circa 1760.

In our last catalogue Flying The Flag we illustrated a fine example of a Hepplewhite version of this design.

Hepplewhite. Circa 1780.

The success of this design continued as we have also had examples of early 19th century versions from the Regency period.

Regency. Circa 1825.

If further proof that a great design can be timeless and also travels is the final and lastest version of the chair we have had dates to the 1930s and has a distinct Art Deco feel to it.

Anglo-Indian. Circa 1930.

By Simon Clarke.