Folding Luxury Into Colonial Lifestyle

In 1910, Harrods, the luxury London department store, ran an ad for household furniture that could be completely disassembled and packed in cases for easy transport by “camel, mule, pony or the heads of natives.”

The portable, knockdown beds, desks, bookcases, wardrobes, sofas and even billiard tables, known as campaign furniture, were patterned on styles dating to the 18th century, made for British colonials who were forever setting up camp, house or barracks around their far-flung empire.

When top brass set off for India or Africa, they routinely carried with them the comforts of home. Their furniture resembled as nearly as possible the fashionable pieces they’d left behind, except it could be folded up.

And according to a delightfully gossipy new book, “British Campaign Furniture: Elegance Under Canvas, 1740-1914” (Abrams, 231 pages, $45) by Nicholas A. Brawer, a decorative arts historian and curator, they toted tons of it. When a certain Capt. Hope Grant of the 9th Lancers was posted to India, he required 93 porters to carry his stuff. Naval officers were reported to have turned their ships’ cabins into floating versions of their country houses.

Some of the finest pieces from the golden age of campaign furniture were made by the biggest names--Thomas Chippendale, George Hepplewhite and Thomas Sheraton. Chippendale’s “The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director” in 1762 listed six elaborate designs for “tent, or field beds.”

The maker of the “Roorkhee” campaign chair might not be a household name, but you’d recognize his invention--a folding contraption with a canvas back and seat--as the ancestor of today’s directors’ chairs.

Brawer’s book is a rare animal--a scholarly treatise that’s also a fun read and filled with astonishing before and after photographs to boot: massive four-poster beds with damask hangings deconstructed to fit into two tidy valises; a dining table that can seat 20 folded up into a box 10 inches deep.

The romance and convenience of “life under canvas”--referring to duty under the tent--appealed almost as much to Brits when they returned to the comforts of their respective estates. All those folding tables and chairs were just the ticket for fancy picnics on the fields of play.