When I design furniture and use photographs of other pieces as a guide, I have to be careful. While photos are great for transmitting form, they often obscure details, texture or even the piece’s true color.
My brain also tends to fill in all these missing details with workmanship that is too perfect, too precious or just wrong. It’s like using a “paint bucket” tool in a drawing program instead of a piece of graphite pencil on paper.
This Campaign-style tea caddy that I studied yesterday at Tucker Payne Antiques in Charleston, S.C., is a good example of this phenomenon. I’ve seen photos of hundreds of caddies, but nothing beats spending time with the real thing.
The outside of the chest is pretty much as-expected. It’s when you lift the lid that the fun begins. The six hinged lids are – for me – what makes this piece special. I like the way the light plays over the frame-and-panel structures. And still after about 150 years of service, the lids fit well and move smoothly.
As you get closer, however, you discover that these lids are not made using frame-and-panel construction. Each lid is one piece of wood and all the details were carved or scratched into the work. This is straightforward work with a chisel and scratch stock – it would be a ridiculous amount of work to make 24 26 tiny mortise-and-tenon joints. And really quite unnecessary, as the smooth action of the lids will attest.
This is the kind of detail that in-person examination reveals and is why I’ll drive many hours to see it.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. I’ve been blogging about some of the other Campaign pieces I’ve encountered during this trip on my blog at Popular Woodworking Magazine. You can read those entries here.
Ridiculous amount of work? That’s why Festool invented the Domino and then added a cutter for making 4 mm M&Ts. I’m being picky, I know, but I count 26 M&Ts.
You don ‘t mention what kind of wood it’s made from, but the main reason for using Burmese teak for campaign furniture is it’s stability. I think its extremely small expansion and contraction with changes in humidity is even more important to campaign furniture than its rot resistance.
Sorry, 26. Corrected above.
I haven’t seen any reference to choosing teak because of its stability. If you have one, I’d love to see it.
In my copy of Wood Handbook (1974) there is this statement re Teak: “The heartwood has excellent dimensional stability and possesses a very high natural durability” (pg 1-37). Also, Table 3-6 lists shrinkage from green to oven dry for imported woods; for Teak it is 2.2 (radial) and 4.0 (tangential) pct, which is lower than any other imported woods in the table, and also lower than any of the domestic hardwoods or softwoods in Table 3-5.
Teak is pretty stable, which is why it is the choice for boat decks. On the other hand, QS stuff is always specified for that application, so QS pine and fir also work well if QS. Those can’t compare to teak for durability though. Can you imagine trying to scratch those profiles in teak! Rick
I hope you enjoyed your visit to South Carolina, I wish our local guild would get you to stop in for a visit. Greenville Woodworkers Guild Greenville SC. Did you purchase the caddy?
I don’t know about stability for teak, but it’s most appealing aspect is weather and insect resistance. As others have mentioned, most any appropriate quartersawn species is going to be very stable.
Honestly, I think doing frame and panels might be easier than scratching in all of those panels. Doing it as precise as these, especially crossgrain, must have been a bear.
Chris, you are a gem! Thank you so much for posting this and the other stuff you’ve done. That chest is wonderful! I can’t wait for your next set of books (on campaign furniture and furniture of necessity). Would this piece fit in both categories perhaps? I’m seeing quite a bit of overlap.
Really cool piece. I’ve been wanting to build one of these for a while, but all the examples I found were veneered and I didn’t want to get into that (I can only learn so many new techniques at a time :-). This one isn’t veneered is it? What is the joinery used for the box? Looking down on the inside it looks like it might be dovetails or just a butt joint, but I can’t see anything on the sides. Also, is there any foil lining in any of the inside boxes?
There may have been other reasons for making the lids solid instead of frame and panel. The appeal of tea has a lot to do with volatile oils, and a frame an panel, by its nature, has unglued joints that would allow these volatile oils to escape. Especially in a hot and humid environment, like India.
Are we sure it’s teak? Seems like mahogany would also be a possiblity.
One other interesting aspect about the piece is the damage to the center lid. It looks like the center pull of this lid went missing sometime during its life, and was subsequently replaced. In the meantime, the British gent that was using it seems to have inserted a metal tool between the lid and the surrounding frame to gain access. And it seems to have been a conscientious British gent – it looks like he switched sides after a certain amount of damage was inflicted.
Why are there different sizes for the compartments? Why the lock?
This Campaign design is certainly a marriage between 2 crafts of the period …. woodworking and metalworking. I’m really starting to appreciate the smithing craft more with every piece ….. if you folks see me coming back from the swap meet with an anvil … please chain it to my foot and throw me in a deep river ’cause I’m a goner.
I have a friend (woodworker) in Arizona who brought me a holdfast, perfect for my bench, that he got a good friend of his (smithing enthusiast) to make. That idea of finding someone in my area that wants to show off some metal work is starting to take hold here.
GREAT find, Chris! Thanks for bringing it!
Hi Chris,
If you haven’t already, check out Nicholas Brawer’s book on campaign furniture. It’s out of print and rather expensive, but alot of libraries have it. Gives tons of examples of pieces and sets, how and why it evolved, collections that have the pieces AND the bilbliography and notes are a treasure trove of info. I thought I’d post this since you said you’d be willing to travel to see a piece of furnature. (It would be a good excuse to pack the family off to London or wherever else a piece might be located for a “working” vacation.)
Like John above, I’m interested in any thoughts on the technique for simulating the raised panels. The other details seem pretty straightforward with a scratch stock. But it would seem to be quite difficult to get the consistent depth and clean surface for the “raised” panel. I suppose you could use a custom scratch at exactly the right depth and shape for the sides with the grain and then chisel out the cross grain areas very gradually.
Chris–any thoughts on the technique most likely used?