Antique Packing Case Campaign Chest by SW Silver

Made of mahogany show wood to the drawer fronts with a painted pine carcass, this campaign chest was designed to negate the need for additional protective packing cases. Although it meant that you would not have the secondary piece of furniture that the separate packing cases would provide, at the time it met the needs of those with a smaller budget or who needed less storage at camp.

The drawers are set in so that protective boards could be placed in front of them to seal the chest and protect the show wood. Brass fittings set in to the bottom edge of each section indicate that the boards each had two lugs to the bottom. With a lock to the top of the boards, the lugs would have held the board in place during travel. The chest has long iron straps to the sides to strengthen it with the top section having additional leather corners to the back.

As you would expect from SW Silver the brass inset handles are marked with the company name and address. Aside from the 66 & 67 Cornhill address it also gives a works address of Limehouse. The carrying handles to the sides are iron. The chest also has a pressed brass plague to the back. SW Silver were good makers and we have written about them on a number of occasions in our catalogues. Late 19th century.