Portable furniture is furniture designed to be easily moved, folded, dismantled or carried, so that it can be transported from place to place or set up and stored as needed. It includes folding chairs and tables, knock-down beds, chests with removable feet, camp stools and travelling cases fitted for specific purposes.
The need for portable furniture has a long history among travelling households, armies and courts, from the folding X-frame chairs of antiquity to the medieval practice of moving furnishings between residences. The form reached its height in British campaign furniture of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, made for officers serving across the empire. London and provincial makers produced chests that split into two sections, chairs that folded flat, beds that packed into boxes and desks that unscrewed for carriage, often in mahogany, teak or camphor wood with recessed brass handles and corners. Collectors admire the ingenuity of the mechanisms and value pieces that are complete, original and in working order, with maker's labels where present. Portable furniture remains useful today, combining character with practicality in smaller rooms, studies and guest bedrooms.
