They took their dining room, drawing room and even bedroom furniture with them on their tours of duty, and naturally it had to be assembled and dismantled quickly for a rapid decamp.
The way your tent was kitted out was a sign of social standing and during the late 18th and 19th centuries campaign furniture became a speciality of many cabinetmakers who produced high quality, durable and fashionable pieces with all manner of inventive techniques for breaking the piece down.
This, for example, is a fine turn of the 18th/19th century mahogany tea or card table broken down ready for transportation. The top is hinged so it can be opened out, like a standard tea table, to double its size and in order that both sides of the square top are supported it is swivelled on its box to a right angle.
In doing this the storage space for the turned beech legs is revealed. These legs are fitted with steel screws and so are easily removed for transport, yet rigid when set up.
Once erected the officer could then write, eat from or play cards on a table fit for a gentleman’s home.
It features in an exhibition of campaign furniture to be held at Christopher Clarke Antiques, The Fosseway, Stow-on-the-Wold from October 12 to 26 and costs £1150.
Sitting pretty on the old front line
FANS of television’s Sharpe will be well acquainted with the tough life of the trooper during the Peninsula War, and also with the grander life of the officers who managed to dine elegantly in their tents on the eve of battle.
