A campaign desk is an antique

desk A desk or bureau is a piece of furniture with a flat table (furniture), table-style work surface used in a school, office, home or the like for academic, professional or domestic activities such as reading (activity), reading, writing, or using ...

of normal size which was used by officers and their staffs in rear areas during a

military campaign A military campaign is large-scale long-duration significant military strategy plan incorporating a series of interrelated military operations or battles forming a distinct part of a larger conflict often called a war. The term derives from the ...

. The campaign desk was usually the private property of the officer, as was his uniform and other military implements. It was in general handcrafted by a master

cabinet maker A cabinet is a case or cupboard with shelves and/or drawers for storing or displaying items. Some cabinets are stand alone while others are built in to a wall or are attached to it like a medicine cabinet. Cabinets are typically made of wood (s ...

according to the officer's wishes or following traditions for such desks. The desk forms varied greatly, but nearly all had as a common trait several features which made it easy to transport them from one campaign posting to another. For instance, a campaign desk version of a traditional

pedestal desk A pedestal desk or a ''tanker desk'' is usually a large, flat, free-standing desk made of a simple rectangular working surface resting on two pedestals or small cabinets of stacked drawers of one or two sizes, with plinths around the bases. Oft ...

form would have strong but removable fittings making it easy to break up the desk in three pieces: two pedestals and one desktop surface. Each piece would have brass or iron handles mounted on it to facilitate handling. Campaign desk variations of the antique

writing table A writing table (French ''bureau plat'') has a series of drawers directly under the surface of the table, to contain writing implements, so that it may serve as a desk. Antique versions have the usual divisions for the inkwell, the blotter and th ...

seem to have been rather frequent. This form was usually in one piece, with strong handles and two pairs of folding legs. A smaller version of such a transportable writing table could be considered to be more a field desk than a campaign desk, since it could be moved frequently from one battlefield's rear area to another as the war went on. Any campaign desk is in a sense also a

portable desk {{unreferenced, date=January 2008 The portable desk had many forms and is an ancestor of the portable computer, the modern laptop an atavistic grandchild of the 19th-century lap desk. Medieval era and Renaissance All desks were portable to some ...

. Modern renditions of the desk could be found at popular retailers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Campaign Desk Desks Portable furniture

See also

References