Campaign furniture
British officers of high social position in the Georgian and Victorian periods (1714–1901) often carried high-quality portable furniture.
A similar type of furniture was made for naval service and even for merchant ships, which allowed furnishings to be used in port or peacetime, but stowed out of harm's way in action, or during rough weather.
[2] An old copy of The Army & Navy Co-Operative Society Limited's catalogue will show that there was a large variety of items, from portable beds to collapsible candlesticks (also known as Brighton Buns), that were available to ease life for the soldier or traveller by the end of the 19th century.
William Howard Russell of The Times noted on 2 February 1858 in his diary: "Sir Colin Campbell's baggage &c. extended for eighteen miles, when he came down from Lucknow".
The numerous items specifically made for travel include a variety of types of bed from four poster or tent beds to chairs that would extend for sleeping; large dining tables, dining chairs, easy chairs, sofas and couches, chests of drawers, book cabinets, washstands, wardrobes, shelves, desks, mirrors, lanterns and candlesticks, canteens of silver, cooking equipment, toiletry equipment, and box-seats for chamber pots were all made to be portable.
By the mid-19th century the demand for campaign furniture encouraged makers to invent unusual and interesting pieces that offer a surprise in the ease with which they dismantle or the compactness of their storage.
A number of pieces of domestic furniture are commonly mis-described as campaign simply because they have handles to the sides, are metamorphic or dual-purpose.
As demand grew, a number of well known designers, including Chippendale, Sheraton and Gillows, considered portable furniture and the end of the 18th century saw the rise of specialist makers with the names of Thomas Butler and Morgan & Sanders perhaps being the most recognised.
The Victorians and Edwardian were particularly concerned with improving design to its utmost practicality and the patents relating to furniture greatly increased in the second half of the 19th century.
Allen [1], Day & Son, John Pound and Hill & Millard [2], who all started out as luggage makers, to expand their trunk making businesses and develop a strong line in demountable furniture.
The new century also saw developments in transport and the rise of the motor car meant that travel was quicker making it less of a necessity to equip oneself for a long journey.
Many of the independent makers of campaign furniture started to disappear in the early 1900s, superseded by the one stop shops such as Army & Navy Stores and Harrods.
In 1940, Jorge Ferrari-Hardoy, Juan Kurchan and Antonia Bonet designed the well known Butterfly chair, made of dismantling metal sections and clearly inspired by the Paragon.
There is more likely to be an owner's or maker's name on a piece of portable furniture than a domestic version and it is easier to put it into a social context.
Another group of manufacturers have produced direct copies of period campaign furniture, seeing that there is still a call for it today be it for safaris or the high-class camper.
