Samuel Levy Campaign Chest with Cupboard

Samuel Levy Campaign Chest with Cupboard

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Reference

82896

A mahogany three part, Secretaire Campaign Chest with cupboard.

The chest has brass corners and strap work and each section is located to the next on two lugs. The cupboard has panelled doors which enclose three linen press drawers. The bottom one of which is deeper in height, perhaps to accommodate hats. The middle section has a short secretaire drawer, flanked by a short drawer to either side. The secretaire has a fall front with green velvet for the writing surface and an unusual interior. Most secretaires have a combination of pigeonholes and drawers within which the officer can organise his paperwork etc. This chest has three equal sized drawers, with a divider to the centre and lined in silvered paper, as a tea caddy would be. No provision has been made for an office other than the writing surface. The maker, Samuel Levy, is known to have also made a chest with a long secretaire drawer that was fitted to one side with a deep drawer to house four decanters. Both are unusual feature on a secretaire. That chest also had green velvet to the writing surface.

All the drawers to the chest have brass campaign handles with those to the long drawers set quite wide apart to follow the line dictated by the short drawers either side of the secretaire. The drawers all have a cock bead cut to their edge and are lined in mahogany. The removable, turned feet are replaced.

This is an interesting variant on the campaign chest for its unusual secretaire drawers. Levy supplied camp furniture for approximately 35 years from the late 1820s until his death in 1865. It maybe that this chest was a bespoke commission with the unusual drawers requested by the buyer or that Samuel Levy was trying to make his chests stand out from others. Examples of Levy's work do not come on the market often and this is an interesting chest. Circa 1865.

Dimensions:

Height 183.44 cm / 72 "
Width 102.83 cm / 40 "
Depth 46.97 cm / 18 "
Year

Circa 1865

Medium

Mahogany

Country

England

Signed

Samuel Levy

Style

Campaign Chest

EXHIBITIONS
Furnishing The Empire
Condition

Feet replaced, some patches to side

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