Testimonial of Barrack Furniture

This red leather Testimonial of Barrack Furniture comprises of 39 letters sent to J.W. Allen by officers of various British regiments. It is obvious from a number of these letters that the company wrote to past customers as well as the regiment's adjutants in order to receive a letter that they could then use to promote themselves.

Many of the letters express satisfaction in Allen's barrack furniture, some note they have no experience of the company and others go in to more detail on the items purchased. For example, Mr. Champion of the 34th Cumberland Regt. was 'particularly pleased with the portable candlesticks'; Captain Gibb of the Royal Artillery wrote 'the mahogany round table & six (6) drawing room chairs, indeed everything with which you supplied me a year ago are of the very best material and very moderately charged for. The travelling chiffonier or sideboard & the round table & chairs has been of the greatest use in change of quarters which I have to make 4 times within the year. The ingenious assemblement of this furniture astonishes all who see it.' and The Adjutant to the 56th Regt. wrote 'The baggage of my Regt. which was recently conveyed by sail from Aldershot to Portsmouth thence by Warship to Dublin & by train to Waterford arrived in nearly everycase, shamefully damaged but I am glad to tell you that all my furniture I found on unpacking to be in perfect order'.

Nearly all the letters are on regimental paper and the range of regiments wide. This testimonial is a unique document and gives an interesting insight to the workings of an important campaign furniture maker. The letters are dated from 1868 to 1873.


1868.