Maynard & Co, Antique Campaign Chest

A low, mahogany antique campaign Chest by Maynard & Comy. of 27 Poultry, London.

The 2 parts of the chest are united by a slightly unusual system. Each section has a brass plate with the top a removable dome headed bolt and the bottom a pear shaped cut out to receive the bolt and lock the 2 halves together. The chest has brass corners to the top front only and long brass corner straps to the front where the 2 parts meet. The skeletal handles have a good rounded shape. The drawer linings are made of oak with pine to the back. The chest has 2 labels: one to the top right hand drawer and the second in the top long drawer.

Maynard's address on the labels is 27, Poultry and he opened his self-styled Asiatic Office at this address on the 16th of May 1831. For a brief period after moving he noted his previous address of Ludgate Street, as on these labels, but seems to have dropped his term Asiatic Office shortly thereafter. By repute, the chest comes from the Duff Family Estate at Park-Banffshire. If it was first bought by the family this would suggest it was owned either by James Duff, the 4th Earl or more likely Lieutenant-General Honourable Alexander Duff, his brother, who became the Colonel of the 37th Foot in on the 20th July 1831. He had enlisted in the 66th Regiment in 1793, distinguished himself throughout the Napoleonic Wars and was also the Member of Parliament for Elgin Burghs, from 1826 to 1831. As a politician and with the family owning Fife House in Whitehall it's entirely possible that Alexander bought his campaign furniture in London.

A good, much lower than standard Campaign Chest. Circa 1831.