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.
The maximum size of British campaign chests is pretty standard. You’re unlikely to find ones that are wider than 40” and taller than 42”. Outliers are out there, of course, but 40” x 40” is pretty typical. And the chests are almost always made with two stacked drawer units.
Why?
Well, there are several generally accepted reasons. The British Army General Order 131 (d) from 1871 states that the maximum size for a chest of drawers was 40” wide x 26” x 24”. This guideline seems to be pretty standard in earlier chests as well. So two pieces would create a typical chest of 40” to 42” high. Also, according to Nicholas Brawer, the author of the best book on this style of furniture, the two halves of a single chest could be strapped over a mule’s back to create a balanced load on the animal.
So this morning I was surprised to see the above image in my inbox.
This gargantuan chest, owned by the British National Army Museum, has an undisputed provenance to a brigadier general. You can read all about the chest at the National Army Museum’s excellent site here.
The chest looks like it obeys all the basic rules of having a chest of drawers that knocks down into mule-sized components. But three components? Wow.
There are a couple other over-the-top details on this chest, including the separate top and bottom pieces, which added significant weight.
I feel sorry for the mule that had to carry the third component. I hope they balanced the beast’s burden with something else. Otherwise, the poor thing would just trot in circles.
Next week I’m teaching a class on building a campaign chest at Marc Adams School of Woodworking that is a primer on the principles of casework construction.
If you are interested in blowing off work on May 6-10, check out the class description here. This class is suited for all skill levels, whether you are just getting into handwork or into woodworking in general.
An important part of this class is we will be designing our chests around the materials that each student can source. I wrote up this design document for the students and thought that some readers who couldn’t attend the class might be interested.
Materials
Campaign chests were made from a variety of materials. The most common woods were mahogany, teak, camphor and oak (white or English). However, almost any cabinet-grade wood will do and an example probably can be found in the historical record. I’ve even seen them made out of pine.
What is important to note about these chests is that some of them did not have any secondary woods used for the interior pieces. The best examples were made entirely out of mahogany – even the drawer bottoms and backs. This made the chests much more resistant to rot and bugs. It also raised the price significantly.
There are lots of examples out there that did use secondary woods for interior components. Common secondary woods were oak and pine.
As far as thicknesses go, the carcase materials should be made out of wood that finishes out at 3/4” thick to 7/8” thick. These thicknesses work well with the available brasses, particularly the corner brackets and straps. The cabinet backs should be made out of 1/2”-thick material. The drawer sides, backs and bottoms can be 1/2” or 3/8”. The 3/8” stuff is very old-school English.
If you are going to use turned feet, you’ll need some blanks that are about 2-1/2” to 4” in diameter and about 5” long.
Brasses
The most significant investment on one of these chests is in the brass. For the class, you don’t need to have your hardware with you. I’ll have lots of examples for you to examine in many price ranges. You can then make your decisions without having to spend hundreds of dollars on examples from all over the planet (I already did that for you).
If you’d like to get a head start, call Londonderry at (610) 692-5651 – they have a new catalog section devoted to campaign brasses. Also, get a catalog from Horton Brasses (http://horton-brasses.com/). Orion Henderson at Horton is happy to work with woodworkers to get a suite of hardware together that works for you. He’ll order stuff from England on your behalf and color all the brass to the same color.
Design
Campaign chests were built in a variety of sizes. I’d consider building a chest in one of these three basic dimensions:
• Dwarf chests, which were uncommon, would be 31” high, 28” wide and 15” deep.
• Standard chests are about 40” high, 36” wide and 16” to 20” deep.
• Large chests are 40” high, 40” wide and 20” deep (or more).
Once you decide the overall size you want to build, I think the next step is to decide if you want to build one that is on a plinth, sled feet or on turned feet. We’ll be reviewing a lot of these examples in class so you will be able to get a feel for them. Some things to think about:
1. The turned feet are usually removable (via threaded wood screws). They make the chest look less massive – that’s good or bad depending on your eye.
2. In some cases the “sled” feet are not the original way the chest sat on the floor. The chest might have had turned feet that rotted off or were discarded or lost. So you can design this concept into your chest (i.e. make a chest that is lower with sled feet).
3. Plinth bases are less common than the other two options, but there are examples where they were original to the chest. Original examples with a plinth usually have the plinth as a separate component – so the chest would be made in three pieces: top case, lower case and plinth.
When I design casework like this I begin with the material. What is the widest board I can find that is long enough (10’ to 12’) to wrap the grain continuously along the side, top and other side? If I can find 18”, I’ll make the case 18” deep. If I have 16”, I’ll make the case 16” deep – I don’t glue a 2”-wide board to the case to make it 18” wide.
Let the material dictate the depth and focus on finding one beautiful board for the show surfaces of the case. If I can’t find one wide board, my tendency is to look for boards that are 8” wide and glue them edge-to-edge to make the case sides and top.
Next search out the board for the drawer fronts. My goal is to find one board (12’ to 16’ long) for all the drawer fronts. I’ll usually look for something 8” to 10” wide for a regular chest of drawers. And 12” wide if I am making a secretary.
After you get the boards you need for the exterior of the case and the drawers, the rest is easier.
You need solid panels of primary wood for the bottom of the top case, plus the top and bottom of the lower case. These can be glued up from thinner stock as the only thing that will show is the front edge. Count on getting about 15-18 board feet of primary wood for these parts.
You’ll also need some primary and secondary wood for the two web frames that separate the drawers in each case. These web frames are made from pieces that are 2-1/2” to 3” wide. Count on buying 24’ linear feet of this kind of material for the web frames.
The backs can be made from secondary or primary wood. Plan on 10 board feet of 4/4 material for the backs.
The drawer parts can also be made from primary or secondary wood. Plan on 35 to 40 board feet for all the interior drawer parts.
Finally, source some wood for the base – turned, plinth or sled.
The rest of the design process flows from the wood you have on hand and what sort of chest you want: Do you want a secretary or a chest of drawers with four or five drawers? What sort of drawer graduations do you want (there are many schemes)? These are the things we’ll be discussing on the first day of class – so don’t be hung over.
There are still some spots open in my class on building a campaign chest that I’m teaching May 6-10, 2013, at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking in Franklin, Ind.
For me, this class is the most important one I’m teaching in 2013 (yes, even more important than the workbench class with ancient oak). It’s important because it will tie together all the hand skills needed to build high-end casework. It will be a stepping stone for my forthcoming book on campaign furniture. And we, as a class, will be exploring a beautiful furniture form that has been neglected for almost 100 years.
On the casework side, this class is about hard-core hand joinery. Yes, we’ll be using machines dimensioning our stock, but most of the joinery will be handled with hand tools. Why? It’s efficient and fun.
Here are a few of the joints and processes we’ll be exploring.
• Full-blind dovetails to attach the top to the case sides.
• Half-blind dovetails to assemble the cases and drawers.
• Through-dovetails at the back of the drawers.
• Hand-cut dados for the drawer blades.
• Grooves for the back? You can cut them by hand or power.
• Web frames for the drawers? We’ll explore hand-cut mortise-and-tenon, machine-made mortise-and-tenon and the Domino.
• Turned feet (if you build a naval chest).
• Installing inset hardware with power tools or hand tools.
• Dealing with figured exotic woods with hand tools only.
In other words, this class will explore the full range of casework joinery options out there. This class is great for beginners who want to jump into classic joinery or woodworkers who have always wanted to learn to do things “the right way” with a historical approach and a handsaw.
Oh, and this class will also be about scoring some incredible wood. On the Friday before the class (May 3), we are visiting my favorite lumber paradise: Midwest Woodworking. There we’ll be picking out some world-class wide mahogany (or other species) for the chest of drawers.
So if you’ve ever wanted to step up your joinery skills to the top shelf, I think you’ll find this class is an excellent trial by fire. It’s not about one skill or one tool or one sample project. It’s about mastering the suite of skills to make a world-class piece of furniture.
I haven’t been this excited about a class since Dictum gave me the green light to teach a class based on “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest.”
For more information on the class, visit the marcadams.com web site here. If you have questions about the class, drop me a line at chris@lostartpress.com.
And for those of you who have already signed up, I hope you are looking forward to this class as much as I am.
Progress has been slow on my book on Campaign furniture. The research materials are scarce, the projects are expensive and complex, and Lost Art Press has plenty of books from other authors for me to work on.
But I do have some good news to report.
1. I’m going to England this fall to visit a private collection of campaign furniture and spend some time with a restorer who has spent his career examining these pieces and repairing them.
2. Londonderry Brasses is developing a section of its catalog that will feature campaign brasses. I’ve seen the selection Londonderry plans to stock and it is impressive. So impressive that I purchased a new suite of brasses for this campaign chest, including the skeletonized pulls shown here.
I’m about to dovetail the five drawers for my second campaign chest. I’ve got also got four feet to turn and 32 pieces of brass that need to be inlaid into the teak. And then I have four more campaign-era projects to build to even come close to having a book to call my own.
I also have a book’s index to edit and lay out, a cover to design and a 180-page color proof to review today.
So I better stop writing this, make some coffee and do some real work.
