Antique Campaign Furniture

Portable campaign pieces and broader colonial furniture from India, Burma, Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and Canton — brass-bound, sectional, and engineered for travel and service.

Antique Campaign Furniture unites military engineering with colonial-era craftsmanship. Designed to be portable, sectional and durable, these pieces accompanied officers, merchants and civil servants across the empire—then reassembled to furnish cantonments, bungalows and ships’ cabins with surprising elegance.

Military Design — Portability & Protection

True campaign work is defined by knock-down construction and reinforced hardware: flush brass corners, recessed “campaign” handles, strapped edges, and sectional cases that split for transport. Chests of drawers were made in two carcases with removable feet; washstands, bookcases, desks and chairs collapsed with threaded bolts or tongue-and-slot joints. Interiors often conceal secrétaire slides, bottle trays and writing slopes—a precise marriage of function and finish documented by leading authorities on the subject.

Materials & Workshops

Anglo-Indian workshops favoured teak for stability in heat and monsoon, sometimes camphor wood (productions imported from Canton, China), ebony or bone inlay and rosewood veneers appear on higher-status pieces. In Sri Lanka (Ceylon), jackwood and ebony were common in Dutch Colonial forms; Indo-Portuguese influence in Goa and Gujarat introduced more European motifs, pierced brackets, sunburst carving and ecclesiastical motifs—cosmopolitan furniture adapted to tropical service.

Brass-Bound Chests & Field Equipment

Brass-bound military chests—with strapped corners, candle boxes, letter racks and dovetailed cases—were standard field equipment. Related forms include limber chests for ammunition, campaign trunks for personal kit, and writing slopes for dispatches. Many examples retain original regimental paint traces, inventory numerals or fitted interiors, adding documentary interest to their robust, serviceable build.

Global Trade: Canton Chests & Leatherwork

Campaign life intersected with maritime trade. From Canton came red lacquer camphor chests—fragrant, insect-repellent and prized aboard ship. Chinese leather export chests, studded with brass swag or bosses, were produced in green for the British market and red for the French, reflecting period taste and heraldic colour. These travelling chests sit naturally alongside Anglo-Indian and Dutch Colonial furniture in an officer’s kit.

Use Today — Integrity & Provenance

For collectors, designers and decorators, campaign furniture offers architectural clarity, honest materials and superb utility. Indigo selects pieces for structural originality, hardware completeness and patina, conserving rather than over-restoring so that each chest, desk or knock-down chair continues to serve—at home, in a study, or as a refined focal point in contemporary interiors.