A fine British military officer’s Campaign ware secretary or secretaire from the 19th century, fashioned as a chest of drawers, featuring a patinated mahogany exterior, showing two short drawers over three long drawers. The top right drawer opening to a secretary desk with one curly maple drawer and compartments, and a pull-down slope with embossed leather writing surface. 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.