A fine British military officer’s Campaign ware secretary desk or secretaire from the 19th century, fashioned as a chest of drawers, featuring a rare, patinated mulberry exterior.

Top tier has four small drawers flanking one large drawer, with a hidden pull-down slope with embossed leather writing surface and several interior compartments, over one large drawer. Bottom tier has two large drawers.

The brass-bound chest, in two parts, accented with inset brass hardware, resting on turned feet.

Campaign-era chests and secretaries were the travel items of British military officers who bought and commissioned them for their campaigns abroad to India and Ceylon (The Raj), indeed, the whole of the British Empire.

The officers, being predominately from the upper classes, were accustomed to a certain standard of living and found it unthinkable to travel without their necessaries.