Category: Campaign Furniture

I cannot thank Sean and Simon Clarke of Christopher Clarke Antiques Ltd. enough for their assistance with “Campaign Furniture.” While many antiques dealers are hesitant to help woodworking writers with information or photographs, the Clarkes allowed me to visit their store and were happy to help.

If you cannot go to Stow-on-the-Wold and visit the brothers’ storefront, the next best thing is to visit the Clarke’s web site, campaignfurniture.com, which is a gold mine of images and information (click on the “stock page” numbers at the top to start your journey).

I have compiled some of my best photographs into a high-resolution pdf for you to download. There are some good photos of the joinery on a chest and a few interesting chairs and tables, too.

Download the free pdf here: CF_DESIGN_CLARKES

— Christopher Schwarz

After much wrangling of numbers, pixels and typos, we have almost all the details set for our next book, “Campaign Furniture.”

The book will go to press on Monday and be available in early March. We will take orders on the day the book arrives in our warehouse and begin shipping it immediately. All orders placed during the first 30 days of ordering will receive free domestic shipping.

The book will be $33. We tried to beat it lower, but we were going to have to sacrifice the paper weight or a critical manufacturing detail to reduce the price (and eat).

The book will be 344 pages and printed in a 6” x 9” format. The paper will be an #80 matte coated paper, which is heavy, bright white and takes exceptional detail. It is the same paper we used in “By Hand & Eye.”

The book will be casebound, Smythe sewn and have contrasting headbands. The endsheets (the paper between the cover and the interior) will be a nice natural color.

The entire interior will be printed in color. Shots of finished furniture will be in full color. Step photos will be a duotone, as shown above.

Here is a final table of contents.

Preface…vii

1. Campaign Style 1
2. Campaign Woods 38
3. Campaign Hardware 52
4. Campaign Chests 82
5. Campaign Secretaries 122
6. Folding Camp Stool 138
7. Roorkee Chairs 154
8. Strong Trunk 190
9. Field Desk 214
10. Collapsible Bookshelves 234
11. Traveling Bookcase 248

Afterword… 265

Appendicies
A. Roubo on Campaign Furniture… 268
B. India’s Joiners, by George Cecil… 279
C. Army & Navy Stores… 284
Acknowledgements…318
Further Reading…319
Index…323

In the coming days we will offer this book to our retailers, both domestic and international. We’ll let you know which retailers will be carrying the book (it is their choice, of course).

The book will be available as a pdf on the same day the book is released in March. We plan to have a special price for those customers who wish to buy both a hardcopy and pdf.

I cannot wait until Monday. After this book heads to the printing plant, I get to dive into Peter Galbert’s book on chairs and Andrew Lunn’s “The Art of the Saw.”

— Christopher Schwarz

The Roorkee family tree spreads across most of Europe.

Marcel Breuer’s “Wassily” chair (1925), Le Corbusier’s “Basculant” chair (1928), Wilhelm Bofinger’s “Farmer Chair” (1966) and Vico Magistretti’s “Armchair 905” (1964) all owe a tremendous debt to the Roorkee chair.

Two of the closest relatives are the Kaare Klint “Safari Chair” and Arne Norell’s version, now sold as the Sirocco chair by the Swedish furniture company, Norell Möbel AB.

There’s a particularly well-broken-in example in this recent Craigslist ad passed to me by Dave Jeske. The Sirocco is an interesting chair because all its components are turned, and Norell eliminated the pivoting back braces – giving the job of holding the back leather piece to the back legs. The cant of the backrest is handed by fastening the back leather to two of the turned side stretchers.

Speaking of stretchers, Norell added three of them to this chair compared to the classic Roorkee. Yet, the chair still retains the same basic profile.

In the coming months, I’ll be exploring more links between 19th-century campaign furniture and 20th-century modern design. There are, in my opinion, some strong ties.

— Christopher Schwarz