Victorian Teak and Brass Campaign Bookshelves, Army & Navy Store, "The Portable Library" Circa 1885

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Victorian Teak and Brass Campaign Bookshelves, Army & Navy Store, "The Portable Library"
Circa 1885

The set of Victorian campaign … Read more Victorian Teak and Brass Campaign Bookshelves, Army & Navy Store, "The Portable Library"
Circa 1885

The set of Victorian campaign bookshelves is the kind of piece that earns its place in a room the moment it arrives: three shelves of richly colored teak carried on slender polished brass columns, standing on neat brass bell feet and crowned by a gracefully scalloped cresting rail. It was made around 1885 for a British officer or colonial administrator heading overseas, and retailed by the Army & Navy Co-operative Society, the London store that supplied everything a gentleman needed for a posting in India or Africa, from his tinned provisions to his furniture.

That is the charm of campaign furniture. Every piece was designed to be taken apart and packed into a trunk, and this one still does exactly that: the brass columns unscrew from one another and from the feet, the little finials on top come off, the cresting rail lifts away and the shelves stack flat. Reassembled, it is as solid and crisp as the day it left Victoria Street. Most surviving examples are plain; the shaped cresting rail on this set is an unusually elegant touch that makes it a decorative object rather than simply a useful one. The rail can be set to the front or the back of the top shelf, so you can choose between a finished silhouette and an open top for display.

Its proportions are what make it so useful today. At just under three feet wide and eight inches deep it is a natural on top of a campaign chest or dresser in a study, on a console or hall table, or on a desk as a working library within arm's reach. In a bedroom it makes a handsome bedside stack for books and a lamp; in a kitchen or bar it holds cookbooks or bottles and glasses. It looks equally at home in a traditional library, an English country interior, a British Colonial or Anglo-Indian scheme, and a spare modern room where the warm teak and bright brass provide the color. It stands free on any surface and, should you prefer, can be wall-hung with the addition of hangers.

The form is illustrated as a "Portable Bookcase" in the Army & Navy Co-operative Society catalogue of 1883, and the shelves carry the stamped inventory numbers typical of that store's stock.

Dimensions:
Width: 35 inches (89 cm)
Height: 25 inches (63.5 cm)
Depth: 7 3/4 inches (19.5 cm)

Marks:
Stamped with inventory numbers "13" and "669" to the cresting rail and repeated on the shelf beneath.

Provenance:
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge

Condition:
Very good.

Historical Context:
Campaign furniture was essential to the British Empire of the nineteenth century, allowing officers and administrators to maintain a proper English lifestyle in remote and often difficult postings. Teak, the dense, naturally oily hardwood of the shipwright, was chosen because it shrugs off damp and tropical climates and the wear of constant travel, and its warm color against polished brass gives the style the orderly elegance that decorators prize today.

(Ref: Ny10265-aim) See less