19th Century Anglo-Chinese Secretaire Campaign Chest in Camphor Wood

• Inlay - Decorative patterns inserted into the main body of a piece of furniture, generally in wood of contrasting colour and grain, though brass, ivory, ebony, shell and sometimes horn have been used. Inlay may consist of a panel of well figured timber inset into a cabinet door front, geometric patterns, or complex and stylized designs of flowers, swags of foliage, fruits and other motifs. As a general rule, in pieces where the carcase is constructed in the solid, the inlay is relatively simple such as stringing, cross banding and herringbone banding. Where more elaborate and decorative work was required veneer was used. Inlay has been fashionable from at least the latter half of the 17th century, when a variety of elaborate forms were developed
• Bramah Locks - A patented high security high quality lock, invented in 1784 by Joseph Bramah, and designed a lock mechanism operated by a tubular key, of such complexity and security, that he put it in his shop window and offered a reward of 200 guineas to anyone who could open it. In 1787 Joseph Bramah?s lock patent was granted with 479,001,600 keys required to open it under all its variations.
  
  Genuine Bramah locks are stamped with the makers name on the top face of the lock, and are easily recognisable because the circular brass barrel of the lock, also forms the escutcheon, and protrudes front the front to which it is fitted.
  
  Bramah locks were used by the best furniture makers of the period, such as Gillows, most commonly from about 1820 onwards, the use of the lock being restricted presumably due to their cost. If an item of furniture is fitted with a Bramah lock, it is generally an indication it is a quality piece.
• Ebony - Ebony is a close grained timber, black in colour. It has a fine texture which can be polished to a high gloss, making it suitable for venereering, inlay and stringing and its use as solid timber is resticted to small decorative items and ornamental decoration, such as chess pieces and musical instrument parts. The term "ebonised" means "faux ebony", timber that has been darkened during the polishing process to resemble ebony.
• Campaign Furniture - Most of the campaign furniture on the market is associated with the time of the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries when there was a high demand from military officers, administrators and colonists.
  
  Campaign furniture is demountable, through clever use of wooden screws and sometimes metal hinges, so that it can disassembled and then packed into lots of manageable size for ease of movement by ship or animal between postings or camps.
• Parquetry - Parquetry is inlay laid in geometric patterns, the contrast being achieved by the opposing angles of the grain and veneers. The herringbone pattern is the most commonly used in flooring, but this is almost never seen in furniture - the patterns used are more complex and unlike flooring, can include several different varieties of timber.
• Mouldings - Decorative strips, deriving from architectural features, that may be either applied separately to a piece of furniture or worked directly on to the carcase. Mouldings are found on cornices or pediments, around the edges of panels and drawer fronts, and around both the tops and bottoms of chests, bookcases and other cabinet furniture. Until the late 19th century mouldings were worked by hand, using a shaped moulding plane. Latterly, they have been shaped by machine.

This item has been included into following indexes:

• Anglo-Indian - furniture, chests 59
• Bramah & Co. (Britain) - furniture locks 9
• desks, style or type - secretaires 201