Category: Campaign Furniture

Though I have been actively building campaign furniture for 17 months for a forthcoming book, I felt like I was treading water – until yesterday.

I got my hands on a copy of the 1907 “Annual Price List” of The Army and Navy Co-operative Society. This incredible 1,284-page book is an illustrated compendium of all the objects sold by the co-operative to its members. In the catalog is a nice section on campaign furniture, plus some other sections that are relevant to my research.

The book cost more than my first pick-up truck, but it was well worth the price and the wait for it to arrive from England.

This book shows the breadth of portable furniture available to officers, colonists, students and urbanites at the turn of the last century. It is so staggering, it makes you want to pick up the telephone and ring them at Westminster No. 69 to order some hard goods.

I’ll be reproducing at least a hundred drawings from this book to illustrate the ingenuity and scope of this neglected style.

One of the first surprises in the book was a form of “Improved Roorkhee” chair called the Bartlett Chair. It has all the hallmarks of the standard Roorkhee – plus extendable rests for your feet, like the classic planter’s chair.

Also of note (to me) are the odd-shaped turnings shown on the standard Roorkhee. The top and bottom of each leg look more like a sphere that any Roorkhee chair I’ve seen. The drawings of the turnings of the improved Roorkhee looks more like the ones I’ve seen in the wild.

But, as Joseph Moxon knows, you can’t always trust an illustrator to draw wooden objects perfectly.

Lastly of note: These chairs were available in ash. I’ll have to make some in ash before all our country’s ash is lost to the Emerald Ash Borer.

Enough yackity yack. I’ve got to get back to scanning this book (each page takes 20 minutes) and editing chapter 14 of A.J. Roubo.

— Christopher Schwarz

“My tent needs to fit in a single truck. This reflects the art of the Garde-Meuble (furniture storage). Spend twice as much if necessary but build a practical, strong and light furniture.”

— attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, 1812 (hat tip to Suzanne “the Saucy Indexer” Ellison for the quote)

One of the reason many campaign chests survived wars and colonial life is they were at times packed into other plain chests. These iron-bound and plain shells were painted and simple affairs – and are a fairly rare sight today.

Despite their simplicity and plain construction, they were critical to the mobile household – the cases were stacked and used as a wardrobe for the officer and his family. Note the removable shelf in the illustration above from the Army & Navy Co-operative Society 1885 catalog.

I hope to inspect some of these cases and maybe build a set for my book. They might make a good introductory project – and I really dislike the veneered English Victorian wardrobe we now use for our sheets.

A double victory.

The other interesting thing about these Army & Navy Co-operative Society catalogs is how the lumber world has turned a bit upside down in the last 125 years.

You can buy almost all the wooden furniture in three species: the cheapest is always teak. Getting the item in mahogany is an upcharge. And you have to pay a further upcharge if you want the piece in oak.

— Christopher Schwarz

When the only tool you have to flatten a board is a 6” electric jointer, all your boards look 6” wide.

One of the greatest gifts of handwork is the ability to flatten boards of almost any width. Many times when I demonstrate flattening stock by hand I get asked the following question: Isn’t it grueling work?

To which I reply: When you are working with 18”-wide stock, nothing is too grueling.

Today I led a bunch of woodworkers (there were 15 or 20 of us at one point) to Midwest Woodworking in Norwood, Ohio, so they could experience this epiphany themselves. We bought tons of old mahogany that was 18” and wider for less than $7 a board foot. We bought 30-year-old sugar pine – dead flat and about 12” wide – for about the same price. Many of these boards will become campaign chests at my class next week at Marc Adams School of Woodworking.

And then we went around the corner to Gordo’s Pub for a burger and a beer – my definition of a perfect day.

You can have your own perfect day wherever you live. Getting wide stock is a matter of looking, asking and refusing to settle for low-quality raw materials.

Do you have a phone? Call Wall Lumber, Hearne Hardwood, Horizon Wood Products or Irion Lumber and tell them what you want. They can truck it to you. And if you are willing to buy 100 board feet or so, you will get a surprisingly fair price.

Wide boards are always worth the money. To me, good lumber is more exciting than a fancy shop or an expensive plane.

What did I buy at Midwest? About 20 board feet of old teak from Malaysia for my next project: A full-size fold-up officers’ desk, circa 1830.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. Thanks to Andy Brownell of Brownell Furniture for helping me arrange this special visit to Midwest. Andy also supplied us all with free Gorilla Glue (PVA and poly) and T-shirts.

One of the reasons that campaign furniture was so common in English society is that officers were required to purchase their own furniture and necessities for their commission.

As a result, The Army & Navy Co-operative Society, Limited, was an important part of the lives of servicemen, their families and (later on) England at large. The idea behind the Society, which traces its roots back to 1871, was to provide goods to officers at low prices.

The Society was where officers would buy every item they might need in service of the British Empire, from their sidearm to their shaving mirror.

My research into campaign furniture for a forthcoming book has had me plunging into the catalogues and rules of the Society. One of the interesting documents I turned up was an 1891 list of what officers needed to buy for their training:

Ash Chest of 3 long Drawers
Large square Table on four legs (forming front cover to chest).
Ash Tripod Washstand, fitted with 16 in. enamelled iron basin, chamber, soap and brush trays, goblet and bottle and glass.
Birch Camp Bedstead, size 2 ft. 4 in. by 6 ft. 4 in.
Quilted Horsehair Mattress.
Horsehair Pillow.
Three striped coloured Blankets.
Waterproof Sheet to cover bed.
Sponge Bath.
Lantern.
Looking-glass to stand or hang.
Tent pole-strap.
Strong Camp Hammock Chair.
Strip of Matting.
Piece of Rope (to secure matting round chest when packed).

Price complete to purchase 12 pounds 19 shillings 6 pennies.

The next stage of my research is to amass as many of the catalogues as I can – especially the early ones. One catalogue from 1898 is where the Roorkhee chair allegedly made its debut.

— Christopher Schwarz