Christopher Clarke Antiques

Antique Military Chest with Secretaire

Oak campaign chests seem to be less common than teak and mahogany ones. This example has a full length secretaire drawer with two banks of interior drawers flanking a longer drawer to the middle, below pigeon holes. The drawers to either side of the interior long drawer are fitted to take an inkwell each and have a lidded compartment. The secretaire interior is veneered in satin birch with a gilt tooled, dark blue leather skiver. The three standard drawers are lined in ash. The Gothic Revival handles to the interior, the tooling to the skiver and the way the inkwell and lidded compartments are done are all similar to Army & Navy CSL chests we have seen. However, there is no maker’s mark that we can find which might point to it being sold by Harrods, who retailed similar items to the A&N CSL and were less concerned with identifying their ware. The antique period is late 19th Century.