Small Campaign Chest

A small sized, brass bound mahogany campaign chest.

At 32 inches including the carrying handles, this chest is more than 7 inches less in width than a standard campaign chest. The two sections fix together with brass bolts as opposed to wooden lugs. The deeper long drawer to the top section is removed to both fix and remove the thumb bolts. This drawer has taller runners to allow for clearance of the bolt heads.

The drawers are lined in ash with oak bases and quadrant moulds for strength. The drawers all have raised round escutcheons and some of the locks are replaced. The drawer edges are cut with a cock beading. The turned feet have wooden threads to unscrew them from the base section for travel. The sides of the chest have iron carrying handles which are smaller in size than the standard and so work well proportionally with the smaller size of the chest. The back of each half of the chest are fitted with a vertical iron bar for added strength. This is a method which is unusual, but we occasionally see on chests of this period that didn't have packing cases.

The size is uncommon for an English chest but fits in with its manufacture to a time before makers mostly worked to set sizes. Mid 19th Century.