Making a Campaign Table...

**Woodwould** · 9th September 2010, 10:14 AM

... Part One

This is a somewhat duplicitous title as not only has my wife been campaigning to have this table made for some considerable time, but the subject of the post is a compact folding table of a genre that accompanied many British officers on military campaigns during the latter decades of the eighteenth century.

The eighteenth century upper classes viewed the British Army as a sort of overseas adventure club where they could enjoy port- and sherry-imbibed conviviality while defending the Empire and bayoneting a few disenchanted natives. Officers purchased their commissions in the army and were expected to provide their own expensively tailored uniforms too. Paying their way was perfectly acceptable to the wealthy sporting class, but surrendering home comforts for a rollickingly good sortie in North America, Egypt or India was unthinkable and not The British Way. In British Campaign Furniture: Elegance Under Canvas, Nicholas Brawer observes "Mobility was much less a concern than keeping up appearances."

Virtually every familiar item of household furniture was duplicated in knock-down form for transporting round the Empire on the backs of beasts for the enhancement of life under canvas. Thomas Sheraton commiserated: "In encampments, persons of the highest distinction are obliged to accommodate themselves to such temporary circumstances, which encampments are ever subject to. Hence every article of an absolutely necessary kind, must be made very portable, both for package, and that such utensils should not retard rapid movement, either after or from the enemy".[1]

Sheraton wasn't alone in pandering to the tastes of gentleman soldiers; Chippendale, Hepplewhite and Morgan & Sanders (amongst numerous others) all produced knock-down chairs, bookcases, four-poster beds, sofas, tables, wardrobes and other fine trappings, the quantity restricted only by the number of mules, camels, elephants and servants their venturesome patrons could personally afford to haul and erect it. A mere Captain in the 16th Lancers wrote: "I should say that for 560 officers and men we must have 5,600 followers… I have in my own service 40 men, 10 camels, and a backery, five horses and two ponies".[2] Captain Hope Grant of the 9th Lancers employed ninety-three men to carry his belongings.[3]

The Empire had become portable, but creature comforts indubitably didn't suffer: The Duke of Wellington thought so highly of the camp bed he used during the Napoleonic Wars that he slept on nothing else for the remainder of his life.

Early examples of campaign furniture were made from the usual array of 'domestic' timbers like Deal, Oak, Mahogany and Walnut, but as the Empire unfolded, items of furniture began to appear in more exotic species of wood such as Camphor, Cedar, Padauk, Rosewood and Teak. Some of these timbers also performed better in the often unpalatable climates of the far reaches of the realm.

Folding Mahogany camp table, c.1790.

The folding Padauk table I will be making will be similarly based on commensurate domestic Mahogany tables of around 1790. The hinged rectangular top will be supported on four straight, frog's-back-moulded legs (two of them gate legs) with canted internal corners.

[1] Thomas Sheraton, Cabinet Dictionary, vol. I, London, 1803, p.123.

[2] Col. Henry Graham, History of the Sixteenth, The Queen's Light Dragoons (Lancers), George Simpson & Co., 1926, p. 85.

[3] James Morris, Heaven's Command: An Imperial Progress, Penguin Books Ltd., London, 1979, p. 201.

**ajw** · 9th September 2010, 10:45 AM

Front row seat for me. I love these.

Thanks for taking the time to do this for all of us keen observers.

ajw

**Fuzzie** · 9th September 2010, 11:06 AM

I'll be watching to.

Woodwould, a question on campaign furniture if I may? I like the simple lined style, but I often wonder about the construction side of things since the sides seem to be invariably made of very wide boards with little obvious allowance for wood movement.

Here's a pic of a lovely Mahogany bureau I saw and lusted after. Why doesn't movement of the wide boards top and bottom eventually lead to material failures? I have always assumed these just came apart and were transported as 'boxes'. By your reference to knock-down am I wrong and that these pieces actual travelled as 18C Ikea flat pack?

**artme** · 9th September 2010, 12:43 PM

Shove over you lot!!

Already got the peanuts.

Now for further enlightenment from the Master!!

**Woodwould** · 9th September 2010, 12:47 PM

Originally Posted by Fuzzie

Woodwould, a question on campaign furniture if I may? I like the simple lined style, but I often wonder about the construction side of things since the sides seem to be invariably made of very wide boards with little obvious allowance for wood movement.

Here's a pic of a lovely Mahogany bureau I saw and lusted after. Why doesn't movement of the wide boards top and bottom eventually lead to material failures? I have always assumed these just came apart and were transported as 'boxes'. By your reference to knock-down am I wrong and that these pieces actual travelled as 18C Ikea flat pack?

The sides are dovetailed to the base and top boards (most likely Pine) and so, they move relative to each other and don't split or create other problems. The only parts that are running across the grain are the mouldings which, being of small proportions and stuck on with animal glue, seldom cause issue. Occasionally you'll see the base and surbase mouldings protruding slightly past the sides at the back. This really only applies to long-grain mouldings.

The cornice moulding in this instance is quite small, for the reason above. Earlier, large cornice mouldings are cross-grained, so don't present a problem. Later large cornice mouldings are built up as a completely separate item to the rest of the carcase (they lift off and are located by glue blocks on the top of the piece) and so only have to deal with the cornice structure which runs the same direction as the mouldings.

Knock-down in this instance does not mean 'flat-pack'. The term merely refers to easily transportable pieces of furniture which either fold flat (like the table above), or come apart in two or possibly three sections. You've probably seen chests of drawers that are made in two sections and the corners are often protected by brass covers. Some of this knock-down camp furniture doesn't have protective brass corners: Many pieces were transported in protective boxes (glorified packing cases which all too often have been discarded) which, upon arrival at camp, would double up, or combine with other similar cases to form additional pieces of furniture all be they covered with a decorative rug etc.

It was fashionable for a period to attach carrying handles to case furniture, but they weren't designed to be carried by the handles and in fact, the pieces are often of such large proportions that they were never intended to be moved at all and if one did try to use the handle to move them the handle would likely break. If you've ever moved a bureau any great distance, the last thing you'd want to carry it by would be handles half way up the sides; your feet and ankles would be severely bruised.

The handles on top of bracket clocks are also purely decorative, but many clocks have been destroyed by people picking them up by the handle and the clock then parting company!

**Woodwould** · 9th September 2010, 12:55 PM

This is about as 'flat-pack' as campaign chests got. The feet would probably screw off too.

Judging by the flat handles and lack of brass corners, I suspect this chest would have had an accompanying wooden case to protect it.

**Woodwould** · 9th September 2010, 12:57 PM

See here.

**artme** · 9th September 2010, 05:54 PM

AAnd i thought Ikea invented flat pack

**Blue-deviled** · 10th September 2010, 02:30 PM

Originally Posted by Woodwould

This is about as 'flat-pack' as campaign chests got. The feet would probably screw off too.

Judging by the flat handles and lack of brass corners, I suspect this chest would have had an accompanying wooden case to protect it.

I take it that the cases are the rarest parts of these pieces? So, young Baronet Cherrypicker returns from India, sells his commission but still uses the chest to remind him of his heady days as a Lancer. Cases are left in the attic, chest is given to the groundskeeper's son forty years later. Cases are forgotten, and they and their intended never meet up again. Something like that?

**Woodwould** · 10th September 2010, 02:41 PM

Originally Posted by Blue-deviled

I take it that the cases are the rarest parts of these pieces? So, young Baronet Cherrypicker returns from India, sells his commission but still uses the chest to remind him of his heady days as a Lancer. Cases are left in the attic, chest is given to the groundskeeper's son forty years later. Cases are forgotten, and they and their intended never meet up again. Something like that?

You must have been Sir Peregrine Cherrypicker in a former life! The cases make cutesy coffee tables as they usually have interesting labels and stencilled stuff all over them. I once saw one used as a dog's kennel as it had the dog's name stencilled on it (the dog happened to share the same name as the original owner of the case).

**Blue-deviled** · 11th September 2010, 01:10 PM

Originally Posted by Woodwould

You must have been Sir Peregrin Cherrypicker in a former life! The cases make cutesy coffee tables as they usually have interesting labels and stencilled stuff all over them. I once saw one used as a dog's kennel as it had the dog's name stencilled on it (the dog happened to share the same name as the original owner of the case).

Fair chance! Now I wonder what happened to my chest (and chin)?

I trust the dog had a suitably, and superbly complicated double or triple-barrelled name...

**Blue-deviled** · 11th September 2010, 01:14 PM

Originally Posted by Woodwould

...

. In British Campaign Furniture: Elegance Under Canvas, Nicholas Brawer observes "Mobility was much less a concern than keeping up appearances."

.

Did you have to mention this book? The price has rocketed since it went out-of-print, and I'm yet to track an almost sensibly-priced copy down

**Woodwould** · 11th September 2010, 01:30 PM

Originally Posted by Blue-deviled

Fair chance! Now I wonder what happened to my chest (and chin)?

I trust the dog had a suitably, and superbly complicated double or triple-barrelled name...

It wasn't nearly as clever as it sounds; the name on the case was 'SHEPHERD'. No bars or medals for guessing the breed.

**Woodwould** · 11th September 2010, 01:32 PM

Originally Posted by Blue-deviled

Did you have to mention this book? The price has rocketed since it went out-of-print, and I'm yet to track an almost sensibly-priced copy down

Unless you have a particular penchant for camp furniture, there are much more useful, cheap and, more importantly, currently available furniture books on the market.

**Waldo** · 11th September 2010, 03:46 PM

I'm back to see what I've missed and 'ere's a lovely WIP by our fine craftsman.

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