Campaign bed
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1840
Materials
Textile, Rosewood, Brass
Measurements
214 x 109.2 x 213 cm
Place of origin
India
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 514454
Summary
A solid rosewood four post campaign bedstead, Colonial, probably East India, mid 19th century The top rail upholstered and held by four lobed and turned posts, each in four sections, with brass rings where each section screws into the other, the head board carved with a stylized shell motif, carved and pierced and with a cartouche below with further scroll and leaf carved detail. With shaped rails holding the mattress base and raised on cabriole legs, brass attachments and fittings.
Full description
Any furniture specifically made to break down or fold for ease of travel can be described as campaign furniture. It was designed to be packed up and carried on the march. It has been used by traveling armies since the Romans but it is commonly associated with British Army officers, many of whom had purchased their commissions. With the rise and expansion of the British Empire in the18th, 19th and 20th centuries the demand by the military, administrators and colonists increased. British officers of high social position often carried high-quality portable furniture. It is likely that this bed was commissioned in East India by a British officer. The bed is designed to break down into many pieces for ease of travel, in this case the posts alone each unscrew into four separate sections. The frame work is held with brass screws which each have a hole drilled through the spherical head into which a bar would be placed to tighten / loosen the fixing. The textile hangings are later but it would probably have originally had linen drapes and canopy. See: Brawer, Nicholas 'British Campaign Furniture - elegance under canvas 1740-1914' 2001 for furniture of this type James Weedon (October 2017)
Provenance
Bequeathed to the National Trust by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) with the house and the rest of the contents.
References
Brawer, Nicholas British Campaign Furniture, elegance under canvas 1740-1914.